Latvia busts passport scam in anti-terrorism crackdown

RIGA - Security officers have detained six people suspected of selling Latvian citizenship and passports in a scam that could have allowed terrorists easy access to Western Europe.

On Feb. 7, two employees of Latvia's naturalization department, one border guard and three employees of the Falcon travel agency were detained on suspicion of selling Latvian citizenship and passports, which allow visa-free travel to European Union countries party to the Schengen accords.

One of the travel agency's employees was a former employee of the naturalization department.

"We don't like the possibility that in the future, some terrorist organizations could use Latvia as a transit route to Western Europe," said Uldis Dzenitis, deputy director of the Constitution Protection Office, Latvia's top intelligence agency.

"We don't want, following a terrorist attack, to find that the guilty person had a Latvian passport."

He said the number of people who were selling Latvian citizenship was not large but noted that this was not the first case they had uncovered.

Following the detentions, the Parliament's citizenship law implementation commission ordered prosecutors and the state audit service to carry out a detailed investigation into the naturalization department's work.

With the three Baltic states attempting to gain entry to NATO, they have been urged by the United States to assist international anti-terrorism efforts by reducing the risk of terrorists using the region as a staging ground or financial conduit for operations.