Forty migrants were arrested in Ceuta after police found they were trying to reach Spain’s mainland using other people’s identity documents, National Police said. The operation targeted passengers on ferries bound for Algeciras. Police said the documents were sold for up to 6,000 euros each, and they also arrested five people suspected of supplying the papers. The investigation started at the Port of Ceuta during identity checks. Officers identified passengers whose facial features did not match the photographs on the identity documents they presented. Checks confirmed the identity cards did not belong to the passengers using them. Police said the suspects were swapping the same documents among themselves for different journeys. National Police linked the increasingly common appearance of third party documents to more reports of theft or loss of national identity cards, mostly involving EU citizens. The repeated use of the same documents, police added, helped them identify evidence of possible organised networks behind smuggling irregular migrants to mainland Spain. The suspects were arrested and are being held while the investigation continues.