CAIRO, 14 February — Egyptian police said yesterday they uncovered a scheme to sell forged visas to Saudi Arabia to would-be pilgrims, seizing money and faked documents and making one arrest.
Police set up an ambush late Monday outside a tourism company’s offices in a Cairo suburb after 27 pilgrims returned from Jeddah airport complaining their entry visas had been refused by Saudi authorities, the source said.
Although the company owners had closed up shop and fled, police arrested one employee as he re-entered the offices around midnight to pick up 270,000 Egyptian pounds ($60,000) left behind.
The money was distributed to the company’s victims. A search of the building yielded 3,000 other forged visas hidden in the basement. Three other suspects remain at large.
