CARACAS: Venezuelan authorities said they have arrested six officials for taking bribes to issue identification documents to Syrians. The country's top prosecutor said yesterday that the six officials worked on data entry for the immigration service.
They are charged with taking USD 5,000 in exchange for granting Venezuelan national identification cards and passports to Syrians.
The illegal sale of passports has been a sensitive subject since CNN released a report in February saying some officials were selling the documents to the highest bidder. Transmissions of CNN in Spanish were banned from Venezuela after the report.