Police Uncover Network of Fake Documents for Migrants in Basque Country. A scheme for legalizing migrants through forged documents has been exposed in the Basque Country. Among those arrested are six lawyers. Victims paid up to 10,000 euros for fake certificates.
In the Basque Country, police have dismantled a group that, for a fee, helped migrants obtain fake documents for legalization in Spain. During the operation, 19 people were detained, including six lawyers from four different gestorías — three in Bilbao and one in San Sebastián. According to police, the scheme’s victims included 118 people, mainly from Morocco, as well as citizens of Tunisia and Algeria.
The scheme operated as follows: a designated intermediary would find migrants without legal status and send them to specific gestoría offices. There, lawyers would prepare fake documents for them — proof of address, certificates of course attendance, medical reports, and bank statements. For such a “package” of services, migrants paid between €5,000 and €10,000, hoping for successful legalization under programs approved by the Spanish government.
The investigation began in the summer of 2025, when staff at government sub-delegations noticed suspicious similarities in a number of legalization applications. After the information was passed to the National Police, evidence was collected and, on May 7, searches were carried out in the lawyers’ offices. During the investigation, over €13,000 in cash and other currencies were seized. All those detained were released under judicial supervision, and the investigation is ongoing.
According to police, proving such crimes is extremely difficult: each case requires thorough verification and the cross-checking of multiple documents. In most incidents, the victims were Moroccan citizens—who make up about 90% of all affected—while the rest were from Tunisia and Algeria. The organizers of the scheme selected clients deliberately, exploiting the vulnerability of migrants and their desire to obtain legal status.
Schemes involving fake documents have repeatedly come under scrutiny from Spanish law enforcement. Previously, cases had already been investigated in which companies or intermediaries used sham services and transfers to circumvent the law. For example, in a recent case, a court discovered transfers of large sums between firms with no real business activity—read more about this in the material on suspicious financial transactions between companies and relatives of well-known politicians.
For reference: a gestoría in Spain is a specialized agency that helps individuals and companies process documents and handle legal and administrative issues. In recent years, demand for migrant legalization services has grown, leading to the emergence of shadow schemes. Experts estimate that combating such crimes requires not only police measures, but also improvements in document issuance controls and greater transparency in legalization procedures.
