Arrests at DUB

Mebuntu

An illegal immigrant scam going back years has been uncovered at DUB. Arrests have been made including, allegedly, two Aer Lingus employees. Will be interesting to hear how they managed to bypass Security and Immigration services at DUB.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2017/0123/847034-immigration-scam/

January

Aer Lingus have confirmed that two of their employee's are among those arrested.

Mebuntu

Getting even more intriguing.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/aer-lingus-employees-among-three-arrested-as-part-of-illegal-immigrant-smuggling-investigation-35390164.html

The employees are suspected of using catering vehicles to move illegal immigrants directly from planes that landed in Dublin Airport to a car-park outside the facility.

<SNIP>Discussion of specific ways to avoid border controls is not appropriate

duskyjoe

I'm certainly intrigued by it. To those allegedly involved and if proven guilty, they will be in a world of pain re the justice system.

Comhrá

Gardai believe that the scam has been ongoing for a number of years and more than 500 people have been smuggled into Ireland this way.

“They were taking people directly off planes and using Aer Lingus vehicles to get them out of the airport,” a senior source said.

Extraordinary if this is true. Imagine if terrorist extremists were able to avail of this? We'd look pretty stupid. Airport security how are you?

AlekSmart

Mebuntu wrote: »

Getting even more intriguing.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/aer-lingus-employees-among-three-arrested-as-part-of-illegal-immigrant-smuggling-investigation-35390164.html

Clare Daly TD,to the nearest Red Telephone Please.....:)

If there is a piece of thread sticking out of this and it's pulled hard enough it could lead .........anywhere ! :eek: :eek: :eek:

Comhrá

Smart won't be impressed.

Mebuntu

From what I heard on the 1pm news the system was more complicated than just bundling the illegals from the planes into catering vehicles. I would be very surprised if this scam was operated by two airline employees over many years without any other connivance. I'd be expecting more arrests.

john boye

Mebuntu wrote: »

From what I heard on the 1pm news the system was more complicated than just bundling the illegals from the planes into catering vehicles. I would be very surprised if this scam was operated by two airline employees over many years without any other connivance. I'd be expecting more arrests.

That's exactly what I was thinking, seems to me if there was something going on there would have to be more EI staff involved.

robyntmorton

What I got on the news on Radio 1 this afternoon, was that the passenger was disembarking as normal, and being picked up before they crossed immigration. They would be taken to a secure area, given hi-vis to look "official" and brought to a vehicle, airside, which could then transport them away.

There is very likely much more to it than what is currently being reported though. Still, will be interesting (and possibly horrifying) to see what else there is waiting to come out about it.

Irish Steve

I am not going to close this thread, but there are a number of rules that will have to be made crystal clear.

The first is that there can be no comments made that may identify anyone that may be involved in this scenario

No comments on how this scam has been managed, or the nature of the avoidance of border controls should be made, to avoid giving others ideas, and to avoid any possible compromise of what is going to be a complex ongoing investigation.

Other comments may be edited or removed, and we may not give specific reasons for doing so.

I'm sorry, but we cannot risk anything posted here being a possible warning to others that may be involved that they are in the frame, and we also have to avoid anything that could cause the investigators problems with a serious case

sjb25

Oh Ryanair :eek:

Cessna_Pilot

sjb25 wrote: »

Oh Ryanair :eek:

They'd want to be careful. Could easily be happening on their flights, well any airline's flights.

Locker10a

Cessna_Pilot wrote: »

sjb25 wrote: »

Oh Ryanair :eek:

They'd want to be careful. Could easily be happening on their flights, well any airline's flights.

Absolutely. 
I won't name names here but something fairly similar like this happened before, but it wasn't refugees that were being smuggled it was duty free goods. A group of catering employees were stealing goods the goods off the high value carts when they were changing over the bars, cabin crew were getting the blame and thousands upon thousands off goods was stolen, an investigation lead to the discovery of a gang of catering truck drivers who were stealing the goods and had set up shop in one of the guys garage, from where they would sell the mechanise.

Irish Steve

Long time ago, there was a duty manager at the airport who was working for one of the handling companies, and he, along with some accomplices, was intercepting passengers bags before the belts, and taking them through via unofficial routes to the passenger, stuffed full of cigarettes. Another time, ramp staff were removing concealed cigarettes from the aircraft hold and getting them out of the airport via an unapproved route, got caught on CCTV.

This latest issue is a more serious development, which will have to be addressed by all of the stakeholders, and it will be a challenge to make sure that all involved are found, and removed from their positions.

Elemonator

Anyone know if any pilots were involved or just airport staff?

Locker10a

Elemonator wrote: »

Anyone know if any pilots were involved or just airport staff?

From what I've read non of the pilots or cabin crew were involved,<SNIP>

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Irish Steve

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

When I was working on the ramp some 10+ years ago, there were no specific checks on vehicles or personnel leaving the ramp.

I don't know if that has changed since.

As per mod instruction, I'm not asking "how was it done?"

But as a normal passenger getting off a flight, I'm forced to walk a certain route; there are cameras everywhere along that route. At the very least, it took some neck to do this. I'm very surprised nearly 100 immigrants got through before it was stopped.

Jamie2k9

Deleted User wrote: »

As per mod instruction, I'm not asking "how was it done?"

But as a normal passenger getting off a flight, I'm forced to walk a certain route; there are cameras everywhere along that route. At the very least, it took some neck to do this. I'm very surprised nearly 100 immigrants got through before it was stopped.

There are hundreds of camera's, nobody would be watching every single one so closely and even if they were tracking a pair of eyes on over 150 passengers isn't easy.

ChikiChiki

Locker10a wrote: »

From what I've read non of the pilots or cabin crew were involved, as mentioned above it was catering staff who would meet theses refugees off the flights and before they passed through passport check they would sneak them into a catering truck and leave the airport unnoticed.

That all seems too obvious. Surely someone would spot something.

Jan_de_Bakker

So the lads presumably were coming in as normal passengers on the flights - just not going through immigration at DUB airport.
Surely they have an inventory to mark off ?

dont they scan the passports on your way in ?


edit - just to be clear, Im asking about the immigration scanning (or not) of passports here...

BorneTobyWilde

It would be typical of Guards to find 100g of heroin and claim a huge drug smuggling operation was uncovered and that the 100g had a street value of 1 billion dollars, so they could pat themselves on the back and drink tea. Same likely here, not likely to be going on for years and years with 500 plus illegals walking into country. What is more likely is they tried it couple of time and got caught straight away.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Spanish Eyes

I suppose the logical question now is, are the catering trucks confined within the apron? And asking.... is the catering ops within the apron area or is it situated landside of the airport?

In other words, can catering trucks just exit the apron on to the main road with no security checks to access the catering facility?

FrancieBrady

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

It would be typical of Guards to find 100g of heroin and claim a huge drug smuggling operation was uncovered and that the 100g had a street value of 1 billion dollars, so they could pat themselves on the back and drink tea. Same likely here, not likely to be going on for years and years with 500 plus illegals walking into country. What is more likely is they tried it couple of time and got caught straight away.

Up to 100 a year for quite a long time according to report.

goingnowhere

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

They do now, change in policy and IT in November.

Spanish Eyes

FrancieBrady wrote: »

Up to 100 a year for quite a long time according to report.

I'd say you could probably multiply that by a minimum of 5.

We are being spun a line here.

FrancieBrady

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

I'd say you could probably multiply that by a minimum of 5.

We are being spun a line here.

You have lost me, explain?

xper

goingnowhere wrote: »

Fred Swanson wrote: »

GNIB have never scanned EU passports at DUB.

They do now, change in policy and IT in November.

Do they? I came through T1 in December and just showed my Passport Card to the guy in the booth as I've done for years

Tenger

Jan_de_Bakker wrote: »

So the lads presumably were coming in as normal passengers on the flights - just not going through immigration at DUB airport.
Surely they have an inventory to mark off ?

Immigration are manning desks which welcome many flights from several airlines at a time, so they are not actually counting off numbers of inbound passengers over the course of the day which a set list of figures provided by the airlines. (who dont like to release that info anyway)

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

...... is the catering ops within the apron area or is it situated landside of the airport?

In other words, can catering trucks just exit the apron on to the main road with no security checks to access the catering facility?

My experience is quite a bit out of date, but 8-10 years ago the EI catering facility was not airside. Im not sure if that has changed with the construction of T2 beside it. Its hard to see the layout (and Ive never really looked that way) from the terminal itself.
I guess its easier to be landside from a wholesale delivery point of view with only the finished product sent airside to the aircraft?

Spanish Eyes

Tenger wrote: »

Immigration are manning desks which welcome many flights from several airlines at a time, so they are not actually counting off numbers of inbound passengers over the course of the day which a set list of figures provided by the airlines. (who dont like to release that info anyway)


My experience is quite a bit out of date, but 8-10 years ago the EI catering facility was not airside. Im not sure if that has changed with the construction of T2 beside it. Its hard to see the layout (and Ive never really looked that way) from the terminal itself.
I guess its easier to be landside from a wholesale delivery point of view with only the finished product sent airside to the aircraft?

Yes I was thinking that a catering operation could not operate airside either, but I am not sure anymore about anything.

In the past I had a friend who worked in catering when it was Aer Lingus, not Gate or whatever it's called, and he worked in the catering building which was , sorry down the road near the mortuary building.

Spanish Eyes

FrancieBrady wrote: »

You have lost me, explain?

Meaning that the numbers brought in under this criminal scam are far higher than reported.

FrancieBrady

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

Meaning that the numbers brought in under this criminal scam are far higher than reported.

How do you know?

Tenger

FrancieBrady wrote: »

How do you know?

Independent website earlier reported 100 per year. Which in my opinion seem massive.
Im shocked these arrests are only being made now if they have evidence showing it has been going on for "a number of years"

ED E

xper wrote: »

Do they? I came through T1 in December and just showed my Passport Card to the guy in the booth as I've done for years

Same yesterday. Civie GNIB agent just visually compared and flexed it. Wasnt scanned.

Green Peter

The question is who's job was it to secure the area where this was happening, gardai, airport police or new immigration officials , I would be thinking airport police!

FrancieBrady

Tenger wrote: »

Independent website earlier reported 100 per year. Which in my opinion seem massive.
Im shocked these arrests are only being made now if they have evidence showing it has been going on for "a number of years"

Yes, that's what I posted earlier. I was wondering how Spanish Eyes knew it was multiples of that

irishgeo

this case is very interesting.

i wonder what section of law they were arrested under and how long can they be held?

The_Wanderer

ED E wrote: »

Same yesterday. Civie GNIB agent just visually compared and flexed it. Wasnt scanned.

My passport was scanned last week when passing through T2.

Might just use the Driving License next time if coming off a "CTA" flight.

Mebuntu

irishgeo wrote: »

i wonder what section of law they were arrested under and how long can they be held?

On the Claire Byrne show tonight it was reported that they will be charged in court tomorrow (Tues)

Jamie2k9

Green Peter wrote: »

The question is who's job was it to secure the area where this was happening, gardai, airport police or new immigration officials , I would be thinking airport police!

TBH it could be a major policy failure by the daa and how they handle vehicles moving from air to land side. It would be down to them to decide the rules.

Getting vis jackets to passengers is clearly not an area which can be monitored.

this case is very interesting.

i wonder what section of law they were arrested under and how long can they be held?

Lots of act, wouldn't want to speculate it here.

Spanish Eyes

FrancieBrady wrote: »

Yes, that's what I posted earlier. I was wondering how Spanish Eyes knew it was multiples of that

Irish Independent report, and that's probably the tip of the iceberg as they say...

Gardai believe that the scam has been ongoing for a number of years and more than 500 people have been smuggled into Ireland this way.
“They were taking people directly off planes and using Aer Lingus vehicles to get them out of the airport,” a senior source said.

I know it just says 500, but I read it as 500 pa which is probably not too far wrong, given we are like mushrooms fed sh!t and kept in the dark lol.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/aer-lingus-employees-suspected-of-using-catering-vehicles-to-smuggle-immigrants-into-ireland-35390164.html

Spanish Eyes

Mebuntu wrote: »

On the Claire Byrne show tonight it was reported that they will be charged in court tomorrow (Tues)

Wonder will they show their faces.

Mouseslayer17

Jaysus,if they are getting people through that easy god knows what else has come through over the years

Spanish Eyes

There must be no CCTV at all when you exit the airbridge thing and walk forever along those corridors with mysterious doors left and right. LOL.

Slink into one of those doors, don a hi viz with a logo, and you're sorted.

Mad Ted.

Irish Steve

Donning a Hi Viz is only part of it, the other part is getting through a door that has an electronic lock on it that requires an airside pass and authentication to open it.

rossmores

This would have to be coordinated at port of origin and i suspect this could threaten the American clearance  at dublin airport.
planting staff in Airports is an areas of interest for sympathizers of Islamist extremes this has hugh implications for an airport with planes especially flying into the US.
I hope this is not brushed under the table it is a bigger threat than a few economic migrants  I suspect somebody coming in this way had more to hide

kona

Lads they don't even need to enter the terminal or anything like that. Next time your in the airport have a look at the ground movements and it will be clear.

shar01

According to Garda Reynolds on Morning Ireland this morning some illegal immigrants were coming in from Rome on false papers so having made it past Italian security why go the route they did to avoid Dublin security?

And they have made it into the EU so again why the subterfuge in Dublin...

I hope the full story comes out in time.