Breitbart: Italian police have connected a parish priest to a forgery operation that saw over a thousand Brazilians illegally buy Italian citizenship papers in a business worth five million euros.
The investigation into the group that was allegedly helping people illegally acquire the Italian documents took place over the last year with police making seven arrests in the commune of Verbania in Piedmont, Italian newspaper Il Giornale reports.
Each set of documents cost the Brazilians around 7,000 euros, paid in cash for an “all-inclusive” package with the organisation even offering day trips on Lake Maggiore as well as local food and drink tastings for their clients.
The group was able to guarantee the citizenship documents by tricking and lying to local government officials who were shown requisites of Italian citizenship by the group.
Several of the “new Italians” even posed with their new passports outside of the Verbania town hall and posted the images to social media.
Several of the Brazilian customers are said to have used the passports as a means to enter the United States and Canada due to the more relaxed entry visas for European Union member states. more here