Spain: Police bust counterfeiters of high-quality €100 notes
Police in Spain, Italy and Greece have dismantled a felony group of Pakistani origin that has produced and distributed over €1 million ($1.1 million) in counterfeit €100 notes. The authorities arrested 14 individuals, together with the ringleaders of the operation.
Spanish police stated on Saturday that the arrests had been made within the cities of Barcelona, Rome and Naples.
The police launched their investigation final November after numerous counterfeit notes had been found in Barcelona. A gang distributed the notes in Italy, France, Greece and Spain, police stated.
Authorities additionally stated the pretend cash was passing by means of ATMs and different units undetected.
“The banknotes produced by the organization were made by hand, were very high quality, as they used special inks, watermarks and different elements designed to circumvent the detection mechanisms,” stated Spanish National Police spokeswoman Elisa Rebolo.
Police stated they arrested distributors at Barcelona’s airport and on the metropolis’s bus station. They had been carrying €70,000 in counterfeit notes.
How did the gang function?
According to data gathered by cops throughout a number of nations, the gang maintained completely different, impartial places of work in varied nations, every of them tasked with completely different components of the method.
For instance, the manufacturing of counterfeit banknotes was carried out by a gaggle based mostly within the heart of Naples. To evade the police, the group later moved to Rieti, a municipality close to Rome.
Another group was accountable for transporting giant portions of counterfeit notes to the shifting cells that planted them, together with the one found in Barcelona.
On February 13, based mostly on data gathered through the investigation, police in Spain, Italy and Greece carried out a simultaneous operation in every nation.
Spanish and Italian authorities issued European arrest warrants for different individuals suspected of manufacturing and putting the banknotes.
dh/dj (Reuters, EFE)
