{"id":245351,"date":"2025-12-15T07:28:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T11:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/?p=245351"},"modified":"2025-12-15T08:29:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T12:29:43","slug":"transnational-ring-busted-for-smuggling-dominicans-to-us-with-fake-colombian-ids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/2025\/12\/15\/transnational-ring-busted-for-smuggling-dominicans-to-us-with-fake-colombian-ids\/","title":{"rendered":"Transnational ring busted for smuggling Dominicans to US with fake Colombian IDs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Red-Identidades-falsa-para-dominicanos-Colombia-Z-Digital-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-245404\" width=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Red-Identidades-falsa-para-dominicanos-Colombia-Z-Digital-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Red-Identidades-falsa-para-dominicanos-Colombia-Z-Digital-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Red-Identidades-falsa-para-dominicanos-Colombia-Z-Digital-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Red-Identidades-falsa-para-dominicanos-Colombia-Z-Digital-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Red-Identidades-falsa-para-dominicanos-Colombia-Z-Digital.png 1980w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 706px) 89vw, (max-width: 767px) 82vw, 740px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Colombian authorities have dismantled a sophisticated criminal organization accused of trafficking citizens from the Dominican Republic, providing them with fraudulent Colombian civil registries, national ID cards (c\u00e9dulas de ciudadan\u00eda), and passports to facilitate illegal travel to the United States and Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The operation, dubbed &#8220;Operation Bel\u00e9n,&#8221; successfully identified the illicit activities of the transnational network dedicated to migrant smuggling and document fraud. The migrants reportedly paid between US$3,000 and US$5,000 to be transported from the Dominican Republic to Colombian cities like Medell\u00edn and Planeta Rica (C\u00f3rdoba), where the ring processed the fake documentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A major break in the case involved the alleged participation of an insider: Andr\u00e9s Felipe Saltar\u00edn, a civil servant at the Auxiliary Registry Office of Bel\u00e9n in Medell\u00edn. Saltar\u00edn is accused of exploiting his position to allow migrants into the office, expedite fraudulent procedures without required prerequisites, and activate the fake identities using data supplied by the criminal ring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The takedown follows a nearly six-month investigation conducted by a special group from the National Police&#8217;s Dij\u00edn (Criminal Investigation Department), supported by the Attorney General&#8217;s Office, the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), the National Civil Registry, and Migraci\u00f3n Colombia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more in Spanish:<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.infobae.com\/colombia\/2025\/12\/13\/detalles-de-la-red-que-tramitaba-identidades-falsas-para-profugos-extranjeros-registraduria-tomo-acciones-tras-la-captura-de-un-funcionario\/\">Infobae <\/a><br><a href=\"https:\/\/z101digital.com\/red-trasladaba-dominicanos-a-colombia-para-obtener-identidades-falsas-y-viajar-a-ee-uu\/\">Z101 Digital <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>15 December 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Colombian authorities have dismantled a sophisticated criminal organization accused of trafficking citizens from the Dominican Republic, providing them with fraudulent Colombian civil registries, national ID cards (c\u00e9dulas de ciudadan\u00eda), and passports to facilitate illegal travel to the United States and Europe. The operation, dubbed &#8220;Operation Bel\u00e9n,&#8221; successfully identified the illicit activities of the transnational network &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/2025\/12\/15\/transnational-ring-busted-for-smuggling-dominicans-to-us-with-fake-colombian-ids\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read more\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[337,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245351"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245351"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245405,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245351\/revisions\/245405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}