Four people have been arrested and five others have been ordered to report to judicial authorities for allegedly favoring illegal immigrationby organizing fake marriages between Italian and non-EU citizens. The arrests come after an investigation in the central Italian town of Pistoia, police sources said on Thursday, October 20.

The probe was carried out by the flying squad in the central Tuscan city, and coordinated by local prosecutors.

Suspects arrested

The suspects under pre-trial custody include two women residing in the Tuscan town of Montecatini Terme - a 48-year-old Italian citizen with a police record and a 36-year-old Romanian national. They are both in prison.

Investigators said that the two women allegedly organized the administrative procedures leading up to the marriage. Moreover, they allegedly provided forged documents to help foreigners, who were not entitled to a residence permit, enter a foreign country, investigators said.

In addition two men, a 44-year-old Italian man residing in Lucca, and a 53-year-old Albanian living in Florence were placed under house arrest for allegedly cooperating with the two women.

Five others have been reported to authorities for giving the two women their documents, which were then forged or altered and subsequently provided to non-EU citizens to enter a foreign country, book a trip and then cross the border with Italy thanks to their forged documents.

Nine cases of illegal entry in Italy, say investigators

Overall, nine cases of illegal entry from foreign countries were reported in Italy, the central police station in Pistoia said.

Investigators initially focused on a person who had already been probed for "a similar crime" in 2021. "After the first investigations were carried out", police said they discovered "a double illicit activity".

One of the activities, carried out on Italian territory, consisted in "organizing marriages of convenience between Italian and non-EU citizens to enable the latter to obtain a residence permit".

The other, which took place "abroad, favored illegal immigration between Italy, France and the United Kingdom, by using forged Italian documents," police said.