MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish police announced on Saturday that they had made 14 arrests in connection with the affair of counterfeit 100 euro notes, worth one million euros, which were not detected by the authorities. ATMs and other devices.
“These banknotes… were made by hand and were of very high quality, as they used special inks, watermarks and different elements designed to bypass detection mechanisms,” said Elisa Rebolo, spokesperson. of the Spanish National Police.
Based in Naples, Rome and Barcelona, an organization of Pakistani origin distributed these tickets in Italy, France, Greece and Spain, according to the police.
Police said they arrested ATMs at Barcelona airport and the city’s bus station, in both cases carrying 70,000 euros in counterfeit notes.
The police operation, involving Spanish, Italian and Greek forces, began last November after the discovery of a large number of counterfeit banknotes in Barcelona.
(Reporting Graham Keeley; French version Claude Chendjou)
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