The director of the department for immigrants at the Attorney General’s office, Frank Soto, has asked that a judge declare the passport case to be “complex” and so order an ever wider investigation. This will permit the Attorney General to investigate the ins and outs of the case for up to a year. The widely publicized case involves an alleged “mafia” that obtained diplomatic passports for people that had no right to use them. So far, over 50 people have been investigated, one sub-minister has been jailed, several mayors and councilmen are also in jail and dozens more are out on bail. Soto said that the case was so complicated that there are still many more people who need to be investigated. As reported in Listin Diario, the whole case is putting the Ministry of Justice to the test, because of the international implications of the case, as well as the fact that the case is crossing party lines and implicating people both high and low. Just one immediate result of the case is the prohibition from Italy that voids any council member or his family from traveling to Italy on a diplomatic passport.