Friday, September 11, 2015

Fake Passport Story

Not really a shocker.  The Tagespiegel newspaper came up in the last day or two and via the German finance ministry....that Bulgaria had seized this box of 10,000 fake Syrian passports.

Destination?  Germany.

The deal?  It's mostly speculation.  They say it was supposed to 'for sale' among non-Syrians who wanted the status given to Syrians coming in (war refugees).

Value of the box?  Unknown, no one from the finance ministry or Bulgaria wanted to speculate on that.  One might take a guess that on the open-market....if you were Iraqi or Pakistani or Afghani....you might have to pay around $1,000 per passport.  

My humble guess is that the box was worth around $10 million in value.  It's the kind of value that you would not take big risks and would have taken precautions to ensure it's shipment and arrival.  Somewhere along the way.....someone screwed up big-time.

The potential of ISIS being behind the fake passport scheme?  It wouldn't take that much for a couple of guys to figure out the current high rate of acceptance for Syrians and the value of a Syrian passport. You manufacture these, and sell them to some middle-guy for a quarter of the value....allowing the middle guy to take all the risk and arrange shipment and sales into Germany.

The last of the problem?  No.  There's probably a couple of fake passport groups out there and busy making new and fresh fake passports daily.  It'll be a trend that the Germans have to deal with, and have consequences for the fake Syrians along the way.

No comments: