Four arrests over airline tickets bought with stolen credit cards
The arrests were part of a European-wide operation targeting airline fraudsters linked to a range of criminality, including drug trafficking, illegal immigration, and counterfeiting.
The operation, coordinated by Europol was conducted in 38 airports in 16 European countries, resulting in the arrest of 86 people.
During the operation, police stopped and questioned individuals attempting to depart on flights on Thursday.
A total of 200 suspicious transactions were reported to police by the airline industry. Of the 86 people arrested, four were arrested at Dublin Airport and questioned.
“The individuals detained are linked to other criminal activities and will be investigated further in connection with the distribution of credit card data via the internet, intrusions into financial institutions’ databases, other suspicious transactions, drug trafficking, illegal immigration, counterfeit documents including IDs, and scams,” said a statement issued by Europol.
It said some of the people arrested were already wanted by judicial authorities under European arrest warrants.
The operation, co-ordinated by Europol’s Cybercrime Centre, was the culmination of several months of planning with Visa Europe as well as European and international airlines.
“This is another great example of the increased co-operation between industry, member states’ cybercrime units and the European Cybercrime Centre,” said Troels Oerting, the head of the centre.
“This close way of working together is key if we want to keep pace with the development amongst organised criminal networks taking advantage of the new criminal opportunities in cyberspace. We are determined to continue developing new tools, new cooperation and new methods for fighting online crime.
“We are grateful for the support from our colleagues in the EU airports who are carrying out the frontline work, our partners in the credit card industry, and the airlines that are the victims of this fraud.”
