Officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs identified and arrested a group of persons specialized in illegal migration that reportedly included two employees of the national Sports Agency. Veaceslav Cebanu, vice president of the Interior Ministry’s Centre for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, told a news conference on Thursday that the police detained three persons holding responsible positions in sports federations on suspicion they had organized illegal migration. According to Veaceslav Cebanu, the suspects applied for entry visas to the Czech Republic in Chisinau for a group of seven female athletes that were to take part in an international competition in the Czech Republic between September 7 and 9. On the Embassy’s request, the police checked the documents showing that six of the seven young women aged between 16 and 25 were members of the respective federations. They discovered that the documents were forged. Afterwards, the women confessed that they paid by 3,800 euros to reach Italy, where they wanted to look for a job. Veaceslav Cebanu said that the investigation into this case is underway and the three suspects are now under arrest. If found guilty, they could face up to 15 years in jail. The Ministry of Internal Affairs urges the population to avoid intermediaries and appeal only to the official institutions that deal with the legalization and issuing of documents needed to go abroad. Since the start of this year, the Ministry started 40 legal cases over illegal migration.