PANAJI: The officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation from Mumbai and Delhi on Wednesday raided the residence and offices of Mr Francisco Xavier Pacheco alias Mickky, former tourism minister and Nationalist Congress Party MLA from Benaulim, in connection with a case of massive immigration and money laundering racket.

According to the sources in the CBI office in the state, the CBI sleuths descended on the house of Mr Pacheco on Wednesday afternoon and the raids continued till late in the night. Though the officials were tight lipped over the findings sources said that some documents were "seized" for verification by the top investigating agency in the country.

The raids were in response to the information provided by the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, a unit of the United States’ State Department, to the Union External Affairs Ministry through its mission in New Delhi that Mr Pacheco might be involved in a massive immigration and money laundering racket.

The External Affairs Ministry then passed on the case to the CBI, which after assessing the possibilities of economic and criminal violations committed by Mr Pacheco, registered the case after finding the evidence provided by US agency, credible source said.

The US agency had also informed the MEA about arrests of several Goans at various American airports and that they were found to be travelling on fake travel documents and were linked in some way to Mr Pacheco, who, however, vehemently denied the charges. The US agency had also informed the MEA about transfer of around $2 million by the former tourism minister from his US bank accounts, in which he reportedly had a balance of above $15 million. The agency also handed over the details of bank accounts and transaction to the Indian authorities.