Spanish police said on Saturday they had made 14 arrests in connection with one million euros ($1.1 million) worth of counterfeit 100 euro bank notes which passed undetected by ATMs and other devices.
\n\u201cThe banknotes produced by the organisation were made by hand, were very high quality, as they used special inks, watermarks and different elements designed to circumvent the detection mechanisms,\u201d said Spanish National Police spokesperson Elisa Rebolo.
\nBased in Naples, Rome and Barcelona, a gang of Pakistani origin distributed the bank notes in Italy, France, Greece and Spain, police said.
\nPolice said they had arrested distributors at Barcelona airport and the city bus station, in both instances carrying 70,000 euros in counterfeit notes.
\nThe police operation involved forces in Spain, Italy and Greece and began last November after large numbers of counterfeit notes were discovered in Barcelona.
\n($1 = 0.9228 euros)
\n(Reuters)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Spanish police arrested 14 individuals for producing and distributing counterfeit 100 euro bank notes valued at one million euros, which were undetectable by ATMs and other devices. The counterfeit notes, described as very high quality due to the use of special inks, watermarks, and other elements, were distributed by a gang of Pakistani origin based in Naples, Rome, and Barcelona across Italy, France, Greece, and Spain. Arrests included individuals carrying 70,000 euros in counterfeit notes at Barcelona airport and the city bus station. The operation, involving forces from Spain, Italy, and Greece, began in November after the discovery of a large number of counterfeit notes in Barcelona.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3466,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1030,3,26,599,499,747,419,1012,184,586],"class_list":["post-3465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyprus","tag-counterfeit","tag-cyprus","tag-economy","tag-euro","tag-france","tag-greece","tag-italy","tag-numbers","tag-police","tag-spain"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n