Greece Police arrested two men accused of making thousands of fake 2-euro coins. A 59 years Bulgarian man and his accomplice, a 41 years old Greek men were arrested near Thessaloniki, in the village of Epanomi. Police also looking for another 40 years old Greek man. Thousands of nickel and copper-alloy pieces used for the coins and also the machinery that embeds them with the Greek national design were seized by Greece Police. The arrest were made after they received a tip from authorities in neighboring Bulgaria and working with the European Union's crime-fighting agency Europol.
Police believe that the 59 years old men is the 'mastermind' of the counterfeiting gang, they found 63,000 bronze internal cores and nickel external rings for two-euro coins, several counterfeiting tools, hand-written notes. Police also confiscated a hydraulic coin press and other state-of-the-art coin minting equipment, a precision scale, various types of ammunition and 4,200 two-euro coin cores in the gang labatory. A large number of coins from various eurozone countries were also found and are being examined in order to assess whether they are genuine. The police confiscated 2,000 legitimate euros in cash and six cell phones that were found in the possession of the 41-year-old.
In May 2012, London Police seize fake coins totalling more than £4 million from three properties in North London, Hertfordshire and Essex. Most of the counterfeit coins were found in a 40ft freight container at Waltham Abbey, Essex. Police also found some of the counterfeits in two vehicles. In total, four million blank £1 coins and £107,000 in completed counterfeits. Metropolitan police believe this is the biggest counterfeit recovery in UK so far. Police are still investigating where the coins are pressed and believe some of the coins maybe already released in circulation. You can read more about it here; £4.1m fake coins seized.
Source: Daily Mail
