Santo Domingo.- Authorities of the General Migration Directorate (DGM) dismantled a human trafficking mafia that operated through the International Airport of the Americas (AILA), to take people with false documents to Spain.

Members of the institution detained a woman identified as Silenny Méndez Medina, who intended to travel from Santo Domingo to Barcelona along with a group of people who carried false documents, said the Director-General of Migration, Enrique García, in a statement.

According to the investigations, the travel documents were falsified in Spain and the group had the support of a network of immigration inspectors at the International Airport of the Americas, in Santo Domingo, to achieve its purpose of leaving the country with fake passports and Spanish residences.

After the plan was discovered, Méndez Medina and the group were transferred for investigation purposes to the offices of the General Directorate of Migration.

The group’s arrest took place on Friday, August 28th, and its members presented to the Public Ministry the following day, the note adds.

In the statement, the director of the DGM warned that the authorities are on the trail of the rest of the members of the mafia group, although he did not provide more information about the band or its members.

The smuggling and human trafficking law punish with penalties of ten to 15 years of imprisonment and fines of between 150 and 250 times the minimum wage (about 35,000 and 58,000 dollars at the current exchange rate) any form of illegal entry or exit of people to the country, either as a destination or origin or as a transit to another country, without complying with legal requirements.