Two civil servants at the Foreign Affairs Ministry have been arrested over the weekend for allegedly selling Gambian diplomatic passports to unauthorised individuals.

According to the Foreign Affairs ministry spokesman, Saikou Ceesay, the unnamed suspects are being detained over their alleged links to the passport fraud syndicate which was found within the ministry last Friday.

He said a third suspect left the country two weeks ago.

The arrests were conducted after an undercover sting operation targeting officials who were linked to the criminal syndicate at the country’s highly respected Foreign Affairs ministry.

There have been widespread suspicion that some rogue employees of the ministry had been involved in the trading of diplomatic passports to unauthorised individuals including Gambians and other foreign nationals.