A network that produced between 5,000 and 10,000 counterfeit health passes in France for a total profit of two million euros was partly dismantled this month after being found out in Metz, France, French news agency AFP learned on Friday from a source close to the investigation.
A couple was arrested in early December, according to the source, who said the Office of the Public Prosecutor (OPP) in Paris had launched an investigation to identify the other members of the network.
According to early results fron the investigation, run by the Central Office against Attacks on the Environment and Public Health, OCLAESP, Metz OPP and the cyberspace gendarmes, the Counterfeiters had collected the data of pharmacists from the site of the National Order of Pharmacists.
They then generated health passes in the name of the health professionals – between 5,000 and 10,000 – for a total profit estimated at two million euros, the source added.
On Thursday, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced the launch of 400 investigations to dismantle the network of false health pass users, and the arrest of about 100 persons. According to his network, both drug users and trafficking networks had been the subject of these arrests since the system was set up during the summer.
There are reportedly about 110,000 false health passes in France since the system was established in summer.
