Police have recently uncovered one of the biggest counterfeit
money making and trafficking cases in the southern Chinese province
of Guangdong,
involving fake banknotes with a total face value of more than 300
million yuan (US$ 37.09 million).
They have also arrested a total of 11 suspects and confiscated
equipment, sources with the local police said yesterday.
This was a high-tech operation, according to Xiao Jianhua,
spokesman for the Huizhou Bureau of Public Security, in an
interview with China Daily yesterday.
The suspects have been detained for interrogation, Xiao
said.
On May 8, police officers in the city of Huizhou in the eastern
part of Guangdong began investigating the case after receiving a
report from the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Public Security that
an alleged counterfeiting ring was operating in the city.
Investigations were carried out around Nankeng Village in
Huiyang District, believed to have been the production center.
After a two-week investigation, police arrested eight suspects
on May 24 when they were allegedly trafficking fake money out of
the city. On the same day, police confiscated fake banknotes all
with the face value of 100 yuan, totaling 62 million yuan (US$7.6
million), as well as equipment for making the banknotes. Three more
suspects were later arrested by Huizhou police in Changde, Hunan
Province.
Further investigation allegedly showed that the ring used
another site to produce counterfeit money in Fangcun District of
Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province.
Guangzhou police arrested another two suspects in the middle of
June, after receiving a tip-off from Huizhou police, and
confiscated fake banknotes with a face value of more than 60
million yuan (US$7.4 million).
Police said the fake banknotes were sold at a low price, each
100-yuan note selling at 2 yuan (25 US cents) in the Pearl River
Delta areas.
In 2004, over half of the counterfeit money seized by police
nationwide was produced in Guangdong, according to official
statistics.
(China Daily September 23, 2005)