A man accused of aiding illegal immigration was convicted by the Judicial Court of Faro to one year and nine months in prison, suspended for the same period, according to Portugal’s Foreigners & Borders Service (SEF).
The non-Portuguese man was involved in "illegal acts to ease the passage over the Portuguese border to foreign nationals whose final destination was the UK," according to the court report.
The case, which dates back to an investigation by the Faro SEF in April 2013, culminated in the arrest of a woman and a man following the "use of forged documents used for illegal immigration and human trafficking," according to the SEF prosecution.
The convicted man has been in pre-trial detention since 14 April 2013. At the time of his arrest the SEF said that investigations had identified a network of illegal immigration and human trafficking dedicated to providing easy access to the UK from Portugal.
The network used a variety of high quality faked documents but two arrests were made at passport control in Faro airport. This led back to the source of the documents and further arrests were made.
