Police have busted the biggest counterfeiting racket in recent years, shutting down a sophisticated operation in four areas, including Moscow, that was capable of producing 50 million rubles ($1.6 million) a month, the Interior Ministry said Thursday.
The counterfeiters were able to reproduce more than 90 percent of the security features of the 5,000- and 1,000-ruble banknotes that they were printing, said Denis Sugrobov, senior investigator at the Interior Ministry, RIA-Novosti reported. He said some of the profits from the business, which was also located in Dagestan and the Volgograd and Moscow regions, went to support North Caucasus terrorists.
Twelve people, including the ringleader, a 32-year-old Dagestan native, were detained by police, and four sets of equipment were confiscated in a complex operation that started in June, Sugrobov said.
(MT)
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