Spanish police have broken up an alleged large-scale forgery ring in Orihuela, Alicante, arresting 60 people accused of producing and distributing fake documents that enabled irregular migrants to work in agriculture. Investigators found that the alleged methods for bypassing employment-document requirements included altering asylum-application receipts and reusing genuine documents with substituted photographs.
The investigation began in late 2025, when officers from the Extranjería y Fronteras unit in Orihuela received reports that foreign workers were submitting suspicious asylum-application receipts. Colombian nationals seeking seasonal agricultural work across southern Alicante and the Murcia region presented most of the documents.
Police traced the alleged forgery operation to a locutorio in central Orihuela. Officers searched the premises and detained two employees, including the manager. Investigators also identified agricultural companies suspected of knowingly accepting workers with fraudulent paperwork. At one company, they found 12 employees using forged documents and arrested the workers along with the company administrator.
The alleged network used several methods. In some cases, dates on asylum-application receipts were changed to make a worker’s authorization appear valid for longer. In others, documents belonging to migrants who had previously processed their status and later left Spain were reused, with photographs replaced so new workers could assume their compatriots’ identities.
After officers shut down the suspected source of the documents, they received information about another agricultural company employing Colombian workers with fraudulent papers. Four workers were arrested on suspicion of document forgery and identity theft, along with the company’s sole administrator, who is suspected of falsifying documents for employees. A third company, regarded as a victim of the scheme, was also investigated after a large portion of its workforce was found to lack proper documentation.
The 60 arrests include migrant workers and people linked to agricultural companies or locutorios. Police have not ruled out further detentions as the investigation continues. Spain’s Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration administers a regulated seasonal-labor channel for agricultural campaigns. The ministry says the program is intended to regulate migrant labor flows for seasonal agricultural work. That structure offers a lawful route for seasonal recruitment; the Orihuela investigation concerns alleged document fraud and irregular employment.
A separate prosecution in Alicante illustrates other alleged risks in agricultural recruitment, but is not identified as part of the Orihuela investigation. Information from reporting by El Debate on 20 October 2026, prosecutors sought nine-year prison sentences for an agricultural entrepreneur and an employee accused of offering harvesting jobs to three people without residence or work authorization. Prosecutors alleged the workers received no pay and were asked for €2,000 in exchange for contracts linked to residence permits. The trial was scheduled before Section Seven of the Audiencia Provincial de Alicante in Elche on 21 October. The allegations in that separate case remain distinct from the Orihuela document-forgery investigation.
The Orihuela case highlights how demand for seasonal workers can intersect with complex migration and documentation requirements. Spain’s agricultural sector relies heavily on migrant labor during harvest periods, and forged paperwork can expose workers to exploitation and legal consequences. Similar concerns about workers’ treatment and legal status have surfaced elsewhere, including proceedings over pandemic-era policies affecting police and civil guards, detailed in this report on vaccination delays for law enforcement in Catalonia.
Investigators have focused on the alleged production and use of fraudulent documents, as well as intermediaries accused of supplying them. They are also examining companies suspected of accepting workers under false paperwork. The case may bring further scrutiny to hiring practices and document checks in the region’s agricultural sector.
