Sicilian investigators who
seized counterfeit euro coins with a face value of 600,000 euros
urged Chinese counterparts Friday to help close down a criminal
'mint' producing the coins in Shanghai.
"The good quality of the coins allows the fake euros to be
accepted by machines," Palermo deputy prosecutor Dino Petralia
told a press conference.
"This was a well-conceived fraud, given that nobody checks
the validity of coins".
The flow of fake two-euro coins was "one of the biggest
carried out in Europe," said Giuseppe De Riggi, commanding
officer of the Carabinieri for the province of Palermo.
Francesco Ferace, head of the Carabinieri's
anti-counterfeit department, said "now it is up to the Chinese
government to lend us a hand".
"The operation should continue in China to block the
clandestine 'mint' discovered in Shanghai," he added.
The racket came to light when police probing the murder of
a Sicilian businessman involved in a juvenile prostitution
racket discovered that the youngsters were being paid with fake
euro coins, police sources said.
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