/ 28 November 2001

CAIRO COPS SMASH FAKE VISA RING

EGYPTIAN police rounded up members of a Cairo-based Pakistani-Egyptian ring, supplying fake European Union entry visas to Pakistanis. A source at the airport said that the visas, using forged stamps from European embassies in Islamabad, were sold for $5 000 each. The gang was broken up after investigators, who received a tip-off from an unspecified source, arrested a Pakistani with falsified papers as he was preparing to board a flight for Paris. Under questioning, the suspect reportedly confessed that he was the leader of a Pakistani criminal group operating in Cairo with the cooperation of an Egyptian, and led investigators to their hideout. – AFP