STRATEGIC PARTNERS
October 25, 2018
French and Italian police, supported by Europol, have arrested 23 individuals and dismantled two criminal networks suspected of producing and distributing counterfeit banknotes that caused $5.1 million in damages.
The network produced various denominations of banknotes and allegedly distributed $51,380 in euro banknotes in France and Italy since 2016, according to a Europol press release.
The investigation began earlier this year when specialized units of the French National Police received a tip about the distribution of fake banknotes. Police tracked down a print shop in Naples, Italy, where an organized crime group was producing the fake bills.
The notes were distributed by a separate group in Nancy, France, who regularly drove to Naples, to buy the counterfeit notes from a Neapolitan family firm, allegedly. Back in France, they resold the notes, spreading them across France and other EU countries.
An Oct. 16 sting operation resulted in detention and house searches of nine suspects in France. In Naples, 14 individuals accused of producing the fake banknotes were taken into custody. Police also dismantled the Naples print shop and seized its printing and digital equipment.
Four days later in an operation in Bulgaria, the US Secret Service, in cooperation with local authorities seized 11 million in counterfeit euros ($12.56 million) and $1.7 million in counterfeit U.S. banknotes from an illegal print shop hidden in the basement of a hotel in Sunny Beach, a resort town on the Black Sea. Authorities detained four members of an organized crime group, including the hotel owner, the press release said.
