Portugal police say operation breaks up large-scale illegal immigration network

LISBON, May 26 (Reuters) – Portuguese police said on Tuesday that the authorities have dismantled a criminal group allegedly responsible for illegally trying to regularise the status of around 4,000 migrants and arrested two suspected ringleaders, amid a tightening of immigration rules by the centre-right government.

• Police said the operation “Miraculous Land”, carried out on Monday on the outskirts of Lisbon, targeted a criminal group dealing in illegal immigration, document forgery, computer fraud and money laundering.

• It said the illegal regularisation of around 4,000 migrants in recent years had generated hundreds of thousands of euros in illicit profits.

• The government has tightened immigration rules, saying loopholes in the system built under the previous administration that gave foreigners easy access to the jobs market had enabled widespread abuse.

• The police said the group used stolen social security online access credentials from dozens of insolvent, inactive companies to provide bogus employment contracts and other documentation.

• It said the investigation began in September 2023 and the main suspects – a businessman and a lawyer – are a foreign national and a Portuguese citizen.

• The police did not identify the two detainees.

• Portugal, with about 10.5 million people, has seen a surge in immigration in recent years.

• Migration agency AIMA estimates more than 1.5 million foreign citizens were legally residing in the country last year, about double the number from three years earlier.

(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; Editing by Hugh Lawson)