Mobsters are always hustling to make a buck. Sometimes that is taken quite literally. The Mob Reporter here with news of a huge Mafia-linked underground mint — that produced a river of fake money that flooded Europe and a police bust this month that took down the largest euro banknote counterfeiting ring in history.
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The euro is the official currency of most members of the European Union. It is second only to the U.S. dollar in terms of most used and most traded currency in the foreign exchange market. Their values are fairly comparable.
Things started to unravel by accident in 2017 after a kidnapping in the Italian city of Benevento, 50 kilometres northeast of Naples, home of the Camorra, one of Italy’s powerful Mafia organizations. When a local nicknamed “Nero” was arrested for the kidnapping, police found he was carrying counterfeit euros.
When anti-counterfeiting specialists examined the notes, they were astounded. They were the best they had ever seen. The fake money was almost flawless. One cop said it was the work of “true artists.” The bills proved to be high quality fakes that required high-level technical expertise, modern offset printing machines and quality raw materials. They looked and felt like the real deal. The counterfeiters had mimicked all the main security features of genuine euro banknotes. Police said they couldn’t tell the difference with the naked eye. Even older money detectors were fooled.
When the same quality counterfeit €50 notes started popping up elsewhere, police started chasing down the source. In February 2018, a 70-year-old typographer who ran a print shop was arrested. Buried on his property, police found nine plastic barrels stuffed with the fake bills with a face value of €41 million. Police also found the metal plates needed for the offset printing along with test printing sheets.
The tentacles of an experienced criminal network with distribution channels nationally and abroad started to be uncovered. A raid five months later found an illegal minting workshop that was punching out 50-euro cent coins in Lombardy. Investigators kept working.
One by one, couriers were picked off over months, caught carrying bundles of the counterfeit cash destined for foreign markets. The counterfeit bills were filtered into the economy in two ways: a network of friends made small purchases with the change from the store coming back in real currency; on a larger scale, the notes were sold in bulk at a steep discount over face value, apparently €8 for a fake €50 euro note.
And on July 15, 2020, police sprang simultaneous raids in Italy, France and Belgium, codenamed Operation Nero — named after the poor sap who triggered the probe when he was caught with fake notes. In all, 44 people were arrested and assets worth €8-million were frozen or seized. Three clandestine printing facilities were uncovered. The ring is believed to have produced and distributed more than three million counterfeit banknotes for a total face value of over €233 million. That’s more than US$271 million. European police officials estimate this counterfeiting ring produced 25% of all counterfeit euro banknotes in circulation.
The alleged masterminds behind the organization were a 69-year-old man from Benevento known as “The Baron” and a 66-year-old from Naples known as “the Counterfeiting King.”
The Camorra mafia was linked in to move it around Italy and across Europe. Adding a touch of tabloid glamour, one of the alleged bulk couriers was the grandson of famous French actress Catherine Deneuve. I loved her in The Hunger. Her grandson was arrested in France and faces extradition to Italy. A wiretap allegedly caught him admiringly describing the counterfeit notes “magnificent.”
I suspect their handiwork will be floating around Europe and around the world for years to come.
CREDITS:
The Benevento map is by Google Earth.
The excerpt of The Hunger (1983), directed by Tony Scott, is from the promotional trailer.
Video of various notes and how they’re made are from the European Central Bank and Italy’s Carabinieri Antifalsificazione Monetaria.
The photo of euro notes and coins is by Avij https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
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