Bruno Bocchini
Reporter Agência Brasil

São Paulo - Federal Police (PF) operating in the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, have arrested 43 people believed to belong to an international gang of passport and visa counterfeiters. The gang was also involved in illegal traffic of human beings, sending people abroad, mainly to the US, Mexico and Spain. Their base of operations was centered at the Cumbica international airport in São Paulo.

Among those arrested are eight federal policemen and two agents of the Receita Federal (IRS). Some of those arrested are Chileans.

According to Federal Police spokesmen, the gang was broken up in a joint operation with US Homeland Security and State Department agents and the Spanish embassy in Brazil.

Translator: Allen Bennett