Seven Syrian nationals, four of whom are youngsters, were taken into custody by Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) police this morning for attempting to enter Rome, Italy, using counterfeit passports from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Officers from Immigration and Emigration stopped the party, which included two families, as they attempted to board an Indian Airlines flight.
Officers were suspicious of the suspects’ travel documents, which led to their detention. It was established that the passports were fakes after more examination. According to investigations, the party had come from Malaysia with plans to go through India and then take a plane to Italy.
When questioned, the suspects acknowledged paying USD 2,000 each to a racketeer in Turkey for the counterfeit passports. According to reports, the forgeries were made with sophisticated methods, such as manipulating Electronic Gates, in an effort to elude airport security and trick sophisticated scanning systems.
Since then, the people have been turned over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) so that they can look into the situation more thoroughly.