May 4, Court of Oktyabrsky district of Minsk sentenced a citizen of the Republic of Ghana to 13 years in prison. Idris Dauda was a leader of international criminal community, whose members for years had organized the illegal migration of Africans to Belarus, Russia, EU countries and the USA.
The fact of this criminal structure existence has been established after the officers of Interior Ministry made a trip to Ghana in January 2009, department of information and public relations of ministry of interior affairs informs. Together with colleagues from the U.S. and Ghana, Belarusian investigators for the first time conducted a joint investigation of criminal case in African continent.
The competent authorities of the United States and Ghana was informed on the detention of the criminal in March of last year in Minsk, while trying to smuggle four of his compatriots — who arrived in Belarus without entry visas — to Western Europe. After that, there started the joint work of law enforcement officers to develop a network of participants, which included residents of African continent, the United States, Western Europe, Russia and Belarus.
The criminals forged and stole empty official forms of visas and residency permits of many countries, which were glued into the passports of illegal immigrants, early inscribing false personal information in them. The cost of fake visas ranged from two thousand dollars to six thousand euro. In addition to participating in a criminal group, Idris Dauda was accused of fraud against his countrymen.
