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Counterfeiters don’t know the crisis. Seven people have been arrested in connection with the dismantling of a trafficking of false certificates of negative tests for Covid-19. The forged documents were illegally sold to travelers at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport, AFP learned on Thursday (November 6). The investigation allowed “The discovery (on the detainees’ cell phones) of more than 200 false negative certificates, carried out on the spot and allowing boarding on international flights”, according to the Bobigny prosecutor’s office, confirming information from M6. Six men and one woman, aged 29 to 52, are “on trial on charges of forgery, use of forgery and complicity in fraud,” added this source. His trial will take place in March 2021.
The traffic, which took advantage of the obligation of certain travelers to present a negative test of the coronavirus to be able to board, operated in a simple way: the defendants established false certificates taking the name of an existing laboratory, then transmitted to buyers in paper or digital format, according to an airport source. “They delivered these certificates for an amount that ranges between 150 and 300 euros”, specifies the parquet floor.
The investigations, carried out since the end of September by the Border Police (PAF), had begun after “The discovery of a passenger who registered on a flight to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) with a false certificate of non-contamination by the virus.” This small network carried out these operations mainly to “clientele” travel to Africa, according to an airport source, specifying that the smugglers were already known in Roissy as “Packers” Illegal baggage, a half-mast activity with the drastic drop in airport assistance due to the health crisis. The accused runs the risk of up to five years in prison and a fine of 375,000 euros.
