The best ‘Spanish’ manufacturers of fake 50 euro bills fall

In Spain there are many banknote counterfeiters. But hey, there are a lot less. And with the ability to sell them on a large scale, almost none. Almost all counterfeit paper money comes from Eastern Europe or southern Italy. Sergeant’s reflection sergi sanchezhead of the Central Counterfeit Currency Unit of the Mossos d’Esquadra makes it clear why the last operation of the Mossos d’Esquadra and of the National Police against a gang that has been capable of manufacturing and distributing half a million euros in counterfeit bills has not been one more intervention in the day-to-day life of those who persecute currency swindlers.

The creators were three and they worked from Reus, Salou and Tarragona. They were a Lithuanian mother, her son and a close friend of his. They were good at their job for three reasons: they had been able to rig inkjet printers, they used a paper that was the hit, and they got holographs, probably bought in China, that were quite successful. The three elements, however, also served the police to recognize their bills and start looking for their authors. According to figures from the Bank of Spain, this group is possibly the most active in recent years in the generation of counterfeit currency. The half million accredited is just that: the one they have been able to accredit. The actual number of banknotes they have manufactured and sold is unknown.

The distribution

Fake ticket buyers contacted these three producers on the dark web. And if they wanted to buy fake currency they had to pay them with bitcoins, they didn’t accept any other payment method. After paying the agreed amount, the tickets arrived through courier companies. No one ever saw the manufacturers. This second group, that of the buyers, were the ones who put them into circulation by buying things or resold them to third parties, often through Telegram channels that for the police, given the Russian matrix of this electronic messaging company, are complicated. to track. Although not impossible.

Related news

As reported this Friday by both bodies, in the police device to arrest counterfeiters and distributors, ten entries and searches were also made by court order, nine of them in Catalonia and another in Estepona (Málaga). The fourteen arrested –7 in Tarragona, 5 in Barcelona, ​​one in Lleida and another in Estepona–, are charged with the crimes of currency counterfeiting, drug trafficking, fraud, electric fluid fraud and belonging to a criminal group.

In the police records, 25,000 fake euros in 50-euro bills and 6,000 fake euros in 10-euro bills, two high-resolution printers, a scanner and paper for counterfeiting bills and a holographic band were seized. In addition, they have seized two detonating weapons and a crossbow, computer equipment and several mobile devices, 240 marijuana plants, 1,200 kilos of buds and eight and a half plates of hashish ready for sale.