RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Police in Rio de Janeiro have broken up a ring that arranged fake Brazilian citizenship for dozens of Syrian nationals, TV Globo’s Jornal Nacional newscast reported, raising security concerns following militant attacks in the United States and Europe and before the Rio Olympic Games in August.
Police have identified 72 Syrian nationals involved in the scheme, which arranged false Brazilian birth certificates for Syrian immigrants, the report said yesterday.
Those certificates were then used to obtain Brazilian documents, including passports and national ID cards, Jornal Nacional said.
Several of the passport holders have travelled to the United States and Europe and some of those travellers are former members of the Syrian armed forces, Jornal Nacional reported.
