A major criminal organisation of 17 people, active since 2005 and responsible for the counterfeiting of euros with a face value of more than 16 million, distributed throughout the EU, was disrupted by the Bulgarian and Spanish prosecution and police authorities, with the help of a joint investigation team that included Eurojust and Europol.The joint investigation team – a short-term agreement between two or more EU member states/agencies – comprising members of the Bulgarian police, the Spanish Brigada Investigación del Banco de Espanã (Comisaria General de Policia Judicial), Europol and Eurojust, was formed in March this year.Twenty house searches were carried out in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and raw material and devices for the production of the counterfeits were found. More than 82,000 counterfeit euro notes were seized in denominations of 100, 200 and 500. The notes were mainly distributed in Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Spain, but affected the entire EU.“This was an excellent international police operation, led by the Bulgarian authority, that has delivered a massive blow to a major gang of counterfeiters,” said Rob Wainwright, director of Europol. “This operation is a successful example of the capabilities of the EU legislative tool of joint investigation teams.”Europol assisted with operational analysis, coordination and information exchange, forensic, technical and on-the-spot operational support.The president of Eurojust, Mr José Luís Lopes da Mota, said: “A joint investigation team has once again proved to be a powerful tool in the fight against organised cross-border crime. The fact that prosecutors and investigators from different member states and different backgrounds can work together and exchange information on the spot is a huge step forward in police and judicial cooperation in Europe. What we have achieved now we could only have dreamt of five years ago.”
