Two Romanian men are due to appear in Dublin District Court this morning charged with fraud. The two men, aged 21 and 27, are believed to be facing preliminary charges of handling or receiving stolen goods.
The court appearance is a result of a two-week investigation by officers from the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation.
A senior Garda source said the investigation centred on forged Department of Justice identity cards and fraudulent claims for social welfare.
Gardai found two stolen credit cards, four separate identity cards and details of several bank accounts in searches at Dublin addresses, leading to arrests at the weekend.
One man is married to an Irishwoman. Both men have been in Ireland for more than a year.
The gardai are investigating a system which appears to provide people newly-arrived from Romania with the identities of others who had returned home after being issued with papers here.
The investigation was "still in its infancy" but there appeared to be evidence that photographs on identity cards were being replaced with photographs of new arrivals, who would then take on the identity of the person to whom the card was issued, the source said.
One of the identity cards found in the search is believed to have been made out to a fictitious name, with another card having apparently been "updated" in some way.
"These people come from a very poor country, with low wages and a very high cost of living. Some of them are coming here and earning £5,000 or £6,000 in hotels and then returning. They don't pursue asylum applications once they've made enough money."
The investigation would be limited to any alleged fraud, the source said. It would be up to other Garda bodies to investigate if any of the activities were linked to the illegal trafficking of Romanians into Ireland.
Thirty-six Romanians have been discovered in container lorries in the last three weeks, smuggled into Ireland through the French port of Cherbourg.
One group of 11 people were each carrying £100 in Irish currency, while some other illegal immigrants discovered in containers have been carrying Dublin telephone numbers.
The EU police agency Europol has said that at least two gangs, believed to be organising the trade in Germany and the Netherlands, are being investigated.
