Ireland deports Pakistani man

A Pakistani national wanted by Irish authorities for running a lucrative sham-marriage scam was arrested mid-game by Dublin police.

Mohammad ‘Romi’ Ramzan was deported to Pakistan on Thursday after undercover police arrested him as he strolled off the cricket field at a north Dublin club.

The 40-year-old had been on police radar for five years, and it’s believed he had arranged more than 100 scam marriages between east-European women and Asian men for €20,000 (Dh 85,984) a time. The marriages of convenience were used by the men to gain residency access to Ireland and across, allowing them to live and move freely across the 28-member bloc.

Irish police say he was the mastermind behind the scam marriages, and he also had a lucrative criminal sideline going in supplying false identification papers and forged documents.

Ramzan had also used a scam marriage to a Latvian woman 11 years his junior in 2009 to stay in Ireland weeks after his asylum appear was rejected by Irish authorities.

Police say Ramzan developed close ties to criminal elements in Riga, Latvia’s capital, and had booked more than 100 flights for women to come to Ireland as brides in the fake-marriage scam and marriage ceremonies.

Five years ago, Irish police clamped down on the scam and he was one of the ringleaders targeted in their investigation. Courts ruled against him and deemed his marriage to be one of convenience rather than romance, and ordered him deported.

But police had a hard time tracking him down. Then they focused on his love of cricket, and were able to nab him as he came off a cricket field in his whites on Wednesday.