TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A Chinese spouse sent Taiwanese passports to help Chinese nationals travel around Europe, reports said Friday (April 12).

The suspect named Zheng (鄭) bought Taiwanese passports at low prices and mailed them to a Chinese gang of people smugglers in Europe who sold them to Chinese citizens, per CNA. After uncovering the scheme last September, law enforcement in the European Union alerted Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB).

A probe found the involvement of Zheng, 46, who had divorced her Taiwanese husband after obtaining citizenship. She then worked in areas close to military installations in Yilan County and teamed up with a local man named Lai (賴) to purchase passports.

Zheng posted job and loan ads on Facebook before offering respondents the opportunity to buy their passport for around NT$7,000 (US$216), according to the CIB. She sent pictures of the passports to her overseas accomplices so they could judge whether the documents fitted the age and other requirements.

Once she received their approval, Zheng would mail the passports in packages to European countries, and the U.K., receiving in return about NT$10,000 per travel document.

From September to March, she provided 50 passports to the gang, but police did not exclude the possibility that the scheme began earlier. Zheng confessed after police detained her with eight other suspects, seven of whom were released on bail.

However, when the CIB suggested her actions might have national security implications, she denied she had been working for China to target military personnel in Yilan.