Europol has supported the joint action of police bodies, which was broken by the distribution of counterfeit money through postal services. During the action, almost a million consignments were intercepted, including forged euros, US dollars and British pounds, in the total value of higher than 66 million euros.
The success of the operation was achieved thanks to exceptional cooperation between 18 countries, which helped investigators for a better understanding of criminal methods and routes of smuggling. Thanks to this joint effort, 102 new investigations are initiated on criminal networks involved in falsification of money.
The overall results of the operations show that 297 packages that contained counterfeit money, intercepted more than 990,000 counterfeit cases, including banknotes and coins in value higher than 280,000 euros, and 679,000 US dollars and 12,000 British pounds.
As a leading agency of the European Union in the fight against counterfeiting money, Europol has provided expertise, coordinated the exchange of information and supported national authorities in discovering suspicious shipments. He also helped improve the risk indicator, thus facilitating more efficient identification of counterfeit money distribution. The European Office of the Fight against Fraud (OLAF) provided technical support during the operational phase, the statement said Europola.
The investigation, which were led by Austria, Portugal and Spain, was carried out since October 2024. by March 2025. And she discovered several new criminal networks dealing with forging money. Most of these networks operate outside the EU, mostly from Asia, but also from America and the Middle East.
This operation was the second phase of the previous action in which Europol also participated. Strengthens and improved cooperation between customs and police enabled the authorities to achieve much better results. One of the most significant success was recorded in Romania, where the coordinated action of national authorities seized 600,000 US dollars in falsified money.
As in the first phase of surgery, the vast majority of seized objects were prompted design banknotes, known as “film money”. These reproductions are similar to the shapes and colors as the right banknotes, but contain a small mark that they are a forgery. However, this label is often neglected, which allows criminals to put them in circulation as real money.
(Type / Source: FENA / PHOTO: Europol)
