"Mafia prints millions of counterfeit euros" -
THE Italian Mafia has printed millions of counterfeit euro banknotes which are already in circulation, police intelligence sources have told The Telegraph.
The disclosure is the first "concrete evidence", as one officer described it, that criminal gangs are stockpiling huge amounts of euros in order to flood the currency markets when the notes are officially brought into circulation in 2002.
Officers from Britain's National Criminal Intelligence Service, which gathers information about international crime, said that the emergence of fake notes so soon after the euro's launch this month confirmed what they have long feared - that the new European currency will be accompanied by a huge rise in money-laundering, counterfeiting and bank robberies.
The new evidence comes just weeks after Serge Bertholme, the treasurer of the Bank of Belgium, gave the most candid acknowledgment yet by a European central banker of the dangers the new currency poses because of its susceptibility to organised crime.
He told a conference organised by the London law firm Stephenson
Harwood: "The risk for counterfeiting will be very high since the euro
banknotes will be widely used. Organised crime is increasing and modern reproduction technology offers the opportunity to produce fairly good copies of any printed picture."
He said that the European Union's institutional framework for fighting forgers was "far from . . . satisfactory". Although the euro would circulate freely inside and outside the euro-zone, legislation and law enforcement agencies were nationally based. This "dramatically" increased the counterfeiting threat, Mr Bertholme admitted.
Italian police, who have been liaising with NCIS and Europol, the EU-wide police force, say that the fake notes have been designed using the website on the internet which contains details of the currency.
The notes are in circulation because many people in Italy believe they are already legal tender and have been duped into exchanging them for lire. Although the euro has been traded by banks since January 1, notes and coins will not be introduced until January 2002.
Police in Britain, which initially is staying outside the "Euroland" of 11 EU countries signed up to the euro, have also uncovered evidence that organised criminals throughout Europe are buying huge amounts of sterling in preparation for the launch.
Gangsters throughout Europe will have to transfer their illegal cash - more than £100 billion of cash in Europe is of dubious origin - into a form that will survive the pulping of the 11 Euroland currencies in 2002.
For some, this will mean buying gold, diamonds or non-European currencies. But for others it will mean turning to EU currencies not involved in the Euro.
Wayne Smith, the head of specialist crime at NCIS, said there already were signs that criminals were shifting their assets into sterling. He said: "We have identified a significant rise in the number of people already coming to Britain to exchange large sums of cash into pounds at bureaux de change."
(Electronic Telegraph, 29 Jan 99)
telegraph.co.uk |
