Euro forgery on the increase as printing methods advance

By David Cronin

Date: 09/06/05

Forgery of euro banknotes is becoming more professional, the EU police office Europol has warned.

In an unpublished report on its activities during 2004, the Hague-based body suggests that advances in printing technology have proven to be a boon for criminals making counterfeit euros. Mostly operating in Southern and Eastern Europe, some of the networks behind this forgery have hired professional printers to help them, it adds.

Throughout the year, details of nearly 3,700 individuals suspected of money forgery were stored on the Europol Information System.

The paper follows data issued in January by the European Central Bank, stating that 600,000 counterfeit euro banknotes were withdrawn from circulation in 2004 - an increase of 8% on the previous year. The fake notes were detected in countries both inside and outside the single currency zone.

Europol also states that Turkish gangs dominate the heroin trade in Europe and take part in all stages of it from importing opiates from poppy fields in South West Asia to selling the drug on street corners. Increasingly however, Albanian groups are co-operating with the Turkish ones.

Estimating that 250 tonnes of cocaine are transported to the EU by sea each year, Europol says that Colombian criminals are still dominant in supplying this drug. A growing number of production sites for synthetic drugs like ecstasy have been found in Estonia (particularly for the market across the Gulf of Finland), Poland, Serbia and Germany.

The mushrooming of pay-per-view websites appears to have worked in favour of those involved in the sexual exploitation of children, Europol says. Most child pornography images and videos seized in EU member states seem to have originated from the former Soviet Union, Japan and South-East Asia and, to a growing extent, South America.

After the 11 March bombings in Madrid last year, some politicians bemoaned the scarce resources allocated to Europol's anti-terrorism unit. Nicolas Sarkozy, then France's interior minister, noted that a small fraction of Europol's staff were assigned to the unit.

The report says that 14 extra analytical staff were recruited in 2004 to work on terrorism prevention.

Yet it says that the breakdown of responsibilities of its 494 staff was virtually identical to the situation in 2003. About half of all employees were in its serious crime department. Information technology was the next biggest division.

Overall, Europol spent €60 million in 2004, €7m more than the year before. Increasing staff from 450 to 494 accounted for the bulk of that increase.

Article quotes from an unpublished report on the activities of the European Police Office, Europol, in 2004.

Europol: Homepage http://www.europol.europa.eu/

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