Investigations have started… A secret network and a 30 thousand dollars passport!

At the request of the Acting Director General, Brigadier Elias Al-Baysari, the Directorate of General Security started a big scale internal investigation to uncover the possible existence of an “illegal network” to fabricate and sell passports for wanted individuals.

According to “Lebanon Debate” trusted judicial source, specialized judicial authorities are supervising this investigation.

The investigation started a couple days back in Araya, when the special unit of the Directorate of General Security arrested an important Palestinian drug trafficker “Nour Masiriyeh” wanted for 58 58 judicial memoranda. Masriyeh was on his way to Syria with him wife and daughter and a member of the internal security forces “CH. Al Ahmar” who was driving Masriyeh’s car as his personal driver. Both Masrieh and the driver were arrested, and the investigation officially begun.

A judicial source confirmed to “Lebanon Debate” that the firing pin of the investigations around fake passports was finding with Masriyeh a Lebanese passport in his name, issued in DECEMBER 2023. Worry quickly spread regarding the presence of other similar copies in the possession of wanted men.

It is worthy to mention that the passport included data belonging to the individual extract of a citizen from a village in northern Bekaa, and after further investigation the data was revealed to be correct and to actually belong to a citizen, who is still alive but has never issued a passport. Hence, Masriyeh’s passport information is correct, but was used by the incorrect person.

It is normal for any person wanting to issue a passport to fill in an application issued by the ministry of internal affairs, found at the mayor's office. The maire will write down all relevant information such as the place of living, the reason behind the application, the required period, the date of submission, the ratification and stamping of the applicant’s photographs after making sure they belong to him.

The individual will also have to head to a general security forces center to continue the necessary procedures including a fingerprint scan, an electronic picture and sign the needed papers.

The focus of the investigation is now pivoting around the mayor in the Bekaa village to know if he is truly involved in the exchange of data or if the citizen living there actually applied for a passport and someone else came in his stead to claim it, this would entail the summon of both maire and individual to be investigated.

The need for an investigation around this cause has also increased due to a main question: is there really a network that is facilitating the entry to general security forces centers to non-applicants to provide them with passports belonging to other people? Is the official data really being molded to fit the needs of the wanted men, who are paying a hefty price, to obtain these passports?

This question is of high importance if Directorate of General Security really wants to obtain any outcome to the investigation of the passports that were issued recently. It will also have to dig deep into the details to know if other wanted individuals had benefited of these passports., especially since rumors have been circulating that the “network” receives more than 30 thousand dollars for every “safe” passport issued.