Police in Castellón have arrested 21 people in connection with an organisation set up to arrange marriages of convenience in order gain Spanish residency rights.
The detainees are 5 Nigerian nationals and 16 Spaniards and include two children. The group are thought to be responsible for as many as 400 arranged marriages since 1999 and this will come as quite a surprise to those Spaniards whose identity has been usurped.
The arranged marriages with Spanish citizens were a mixture of identity thefts and paid spouses, those agreeing to enter into such an arrangement receiving in the region of €3,000. The cost to the ‘residency seeker’ was around €10,000, so a nice healthy profit for the organisation.
The marriages, of both types, took place in Castellón, Valencia, Alicante, Zaragoza, Teruel, Tarragona, Barcelona, Madrid, Cuenca, Guadalajara, Zamora, Almeria and Murcia. Many of those seeking the arranged marriages were of Nigerian origin.
The detainees have been variously charged with conspiracy, theft of marital status, facilitating illegal immigration, falsifying documents and bigamy.