ID forgers linked to 2016 Berlin terror attack arrested in Italy
Italian police have arrested three suspected document forgers in the Naples area following an investigation into the background of the Berlin Christmas market attacker.
The suspects from the African countries of Ghana, Senegal and Guinea were accused of forging Italian passports and aiding and abetting illegal immigration, Naples police said on Thursday.
A fourth suspect was arrested in the Dutch city of Rotterdam on a European arrest warrant.
According to the investigators, the suspects were tracked down by investigations launched following the terrorist attack on the Berlin Christmas market in 2016 by Anis Amri, which resulted in the death of 12 people.
Two printing companies in Naples which were producing forged documents came to the attention of investigators when it emerged Amri had been a beneficiary of their operations, police said.
Authorities had previously said that Amri, a Tunisian national, used fake identification papers to travel across Europe.
The police also screened about 70 people, mostly of Tunisian and Central African nationality and residing in Italy, who were alleged to have had links to the gang, the statement said.
The investigations were part of a larger operation targeting criminal organisations which have seen a total of 19 people arrested and 100 searches carried out in Italy.
