27/04/2013 00:00
TW
0
STAFF REPORTER

PALMA
THE Guardia Civil yesterday arrested 23 people, most of them Bulgarian, under the suspicion of distributing fake euro notes in Spain.
Arrests were made here in the Balearics, Alicante, Barcelona and Badajoz by the Guardia Civil which mounted a series of simultaneous raids on a number of properties believed to be used by the gang.

According to the Guardia Civil, the fake 100 and 200 euro notes were printed in Bulgaria and then smuggled into Spain by coach.
The suspects would purchase the fake notes for between 20 and 35 percent of the face value and then exchange them.
Operation “Lamarina” was mounted some months ago and since then, the Guardia Civil were able to not only locate and identify all of the gang members and its head here in Spain, but also the network of stores, most of them without false money identification systems, where the Bulgarians would exchange their fake notes. 27'550 euros in false notes was found during yesterday's raids.