From Covid certificates to passports of citizens of European countries: Transcarpathian police exposed a group that earned money on falsifying documents
Transcarpathian police officers exposed a group of persons who, at several addresses in Uzhgorod, arranged offices where they produced a fairly wide list of forged documents. Among those seized are the procurement of Covid certificates, service licenses, driver's licenses, passports and expensive equipment.
Recently, at the international checkpoint “Tisa”, law enforcement officers found a 27-year-old resident of Velyko-Bereznia region, who presented a vaccination certificate with obvious signs of forgery to the border service. Employees of the Transcarpathian police immediately began an investigation on this fact and qualified the man's actions under Part 4 of Article 358 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, that is, the use of a forged document.
During the pre-trial investigation, the agents of the migration police managed to establish that a group of persons in Uzhgorod was involved in the manufacture of the seized counterfeit. It was also possible to establish the addresses where the attackers equipped their offices.
As a result, yesterday, December 23, together with police investigators under the procedural guidance of the prosecutor's office, court-sanctioned searches were conducted at the place of illegal activities. In the course of the investigative actions, it turned out that in addition to forging code documents, the defendants offered their services in the production of driver's licenses, vehicle registration certificates, ID-cards of citizens of Ukraine and European Union countries.
Among the seized are ready-made forms, computer equipment with samples of all documents, customer data, 300 plastic blanks for the production of forged documents and about 100 already printed ones. In addition, about 20 units of expensive equipment were seized. All material evidence will be examined by experts.
Police found that the attackers printed and sold at least 500 fake vaccination certificates and PCR tests a day. The extent of the distribution of other illegal documents is currently being established.
The investigation into the case is ongoing.
Police Communication Department of Zakarpattia Oblast
