Mossos Arrest 50 in Ring That Sold Fake Jobs to Pakistani Migrants
Catalan police arrested 50 people in a network that charged Pakistani migrants up to thirty thousand euros for fake job contracts. What was found and who was held.
The Mossos d’Esquadra (Catalonia’s police) have arrested 50 people accused of running or using a network that brought Pakistani citizens into Spain on fake job contracts. According to the Catalan daily Ara, the group made more than three million euros, and three of those arrested are now in prison.
Police describe it as the largest case they have handled on irregular immigration. The arrests took place on Oct. 26 and 27, mostly in Barcelona and the surrounding metropolitan area, and the investigation remains open.
How the scheme worked
The network acted as a broker between Pakistanis who wanted Spanish residence and work permits and local business owners willing to sign job contracts in exchange for money. Its members prepared the paperwork needed for “contratación en origen”, the procedure that lets a Spanish employer hire a worker who is still abroad. That paperwork included civil registry documents and other forms required by the authorities, according to Ara.
People recruited in Pakistan paid up to thirty thousand euros for a package that covered the visa, the official documents, registration on the padrón (the municipal residents’ register) and a job contract. Pakistanis already living in Catalonia without papers paid up to eight thousand euros for a simulated contract that let them start the process of regularizing their status.
The employers came from many sectors. Police named food shops, restaurants, renovation companies and car repair workshops among the businesses used to sign the contracts.
What happened to the workers
Investigators found that some of the people hired ended up in precarious jobs, in conditions police described as close to labor exploitation. In other cases the job existed only on paper, or ended soon after the worker obtained the permits.
The local broadcaster betevé reported that between March 2022 and July 2023 the group handled 224 hiring files, and 108 of them were approved. Those approved cases alone brought in about 3.2 million euros, according to betevé, a figure that leaves out rejected or archived files and the payments from people already in Spain. Ara gives the same totals of 224 files and 108 approvals.
Who was arrested
Of the 50 detainees, 48 are men and two are women, according to betevé. Seven are alleged members of the organization and 43 are business owners who signed the fraudulent contracts. The operation involved 81 officers.
The seven alleged members are accused of belonging to a criminal organization, crimes against the rights of foreign citizens and document forgery. The employers face the last two charges.
Most arrests were made in Barcelona, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Badalona, Santa Coloma de Gramenet and Sant Adrià de Besòs. Police also detained people in Sabadell, Terrassa, Vic, Sant Boi de Llobregat and Sant Vicenç dels Horts.
A structure active since 2019
Police say the group was stable and hierarchical, with clear roles, based mainly in Catalonia and with branches in Pakistan. Ara reports it had been active since 2019.
The case began in February 2024, betevé reported, after searches carried out in an earlier investigation into other crimes. One of those searches was at a gestoría (an administrative agency that handles paperwork for clients) in Barcelona. There, officers found that the person in charge had processed fraudulent files and false employment contracts, and police IT specialists then traced the wider organization behind them.
What it means for migrants and employers
Hiring from abroad is one of the legal routes into Spain for workers from outside the EU, and it depends on a real employer and a real job. In this case, according to police, both the jobs and the documents could be bought. The people who paid were left exposed: some worked in poor conditions, and others held permits based on jobs that did not exist.
The case also reaches beyond the seven organizers. Police treated the 43 employers as suspects in their own right, charging them with forgery and with crimes against the rights of foreign citizens.
What comes next
The Mossos say the investigation is still open and have not ruled out more arrests. The suspects now face the charges listed above in the courts.
