Europol has carried out house raids targeting buyers of fake banknotes made by a darknet counterfeit currency producer.
The law enforcement agency says police officials from seven EU Member States carried out 36 house searches, detained 44 suspects for questioning, 11 of whom have been arrested, and seized counterfeit euro banknotes, drugs, weapons, doping substances, illegally procured medicines, forged documents and virtual currency.
Over 26 000 fake banknotes were shipped to buyers all over the continent, making this criminal group the second-largest counterfeit currency producer operating on the darknet to be identified so far.
BBC reports that the estimated face value of the notes was about €1.3 million.
According to Europol, a company claiming to be a document print shop was also dismantled in Germany.
German police carried out 27 house searches and 9 other raids were done in Austria, France, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg and Spain.
To minimise the risk of the suspects alerting each other, the police carried out the raids over a short period of time between 9 and 11 December.
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