National Police agents have dismantled a clandestine printing press in the Canary Islands prepared to print 350,000 euros in 20 and 50 euro notes, in an international operation that has had the coordination of Europol and the Ministry of the Interior in Colombia.
As reported by the National Police, the criminal organization was based in Colombia but, in order to facilitate the introduction of counterfeit money into the financial circuit of Europe, it decided to move part of its members to the Canary archipelago.
Two people specialized in printing counterfeit money have been arrested and all the machinery, tools and materials necessary for imitating euro notes have been seized.
International collaboration with Colombia
The investigation began thanks to the close relationship of the National Police with the Colombian authorities in the fight against currency counterfeiting. As a result of this relationship, at the beginning of this year, the Technical Investigation Corps of the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Colombia informed the Spanish agents that they were carrying out an investigation for currency counterfeiting.
The Colombian agents had discovered that the criminal organization was based in the city of Cali and was preparing an operation to print huge amounts of fake euros. In addition, they found out that the organization specialized in drug trafficking and currency counterfeiting had decided to move the printing of fake euros to Europe, in order to facilitate their introduction into the financial circuit.
For this reason, the leadership of the criminal group sent two printers to Spain, but only one managed to pass the airport border control.
Illegal banknote printing press in Gran Canaria
Once in our country, the printer who arrived from Cali (Colombia) contacted other members of the organization in Spain and they moved to the Canary archipelago, specifically to the Island of Gran Canaria, where they established their base for printing fake euros.
After several investigations, the Spanish agents verified that the organization had acquired printers, printer cartridges, machinery, guillotines, inks, paper and other effects related to their criminal activity. With all the information, the investigators deduced that they were preparing a high-quality counterfeiting of 20 and 50 euro notes, so they established a device to arrest those responsible.
The operation has culminated with the arrest of the two people involved in the counterfeiting of euro notes and, in addition, the dismantling of a printing press for their manufacture located in a room of a house located in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Among the seized items are six printers, an electric guillotine, a computer, a scanner, a hot stamping machine, a drying machine, three thousand sheets of paper for counterfeiting fake banknotes and a large number of ink bottles.
