The workers in question would give the migrants AENA staff key cards that would allow them to sidestep police border controls upon arriving at Spain’s second biggest airport.

Four of the arrested worked at restaurants at El Prat’s Terminal One international transit zone, whilst one other was a maintenance employee.

The modus operandi involved the non-EU migrants without a visa booking flights with a stopover in Spain but which had a non-Schengen country as a final destination, often Turkey or Ireland. 

Once they arrived in the T1 transit area, the workers would give the migrants key cards and guide them through the restricted staff corridors as far as possible to areas of the airport where domestic flights operate and where there are fewer police controls. 

According to reports, they would often leave employee uniforms hidden in the toilets for the migrants to get dressed in and go more unnoticed. 

Spanish police arrested their first suspect back in March 2023, concluding that it was likely that he was part of a larger criminal gang operating at Barcelona’s airport. 

Early investigations suggest at least 22 migrants were able to enter Spain illegally after paying the criminal organisation large sums of money for their assistance. 

National police have referred to the gang’s actions as “a great risk to national security”.