Fraudulent passports believed to be for foreign nationals, not Irish gangs

Garda investigations at the Passport Office indicate that foreign nationals, rather than Irish criminal gangs, were the beneficiaries of a suspected passport fraud.

Two employees of the office in Dublin have been questioned and released in relation to the production of the passports. A file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

A senior team from the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation is conducting a “dredge” through all the passports the two employees — a man and a woman — were involved in.