The Prosecution Office for Organized Crime and Corruption in North Macedonia has announced that it has discovered and confiscated around half a million euros, including equipment for counting and counterfeiting money, copies of parts of banknotes, as well as weapons and ammunition, during an operation conducted on Monday.
In a press release, the Prosecutor's Office announced that the operation, codenamed "Vardar", resulted in the arrest of ten people, and was carried out in cooperation with the European Police Agency (EUROPOL), with the support of Eurojust - the EU Agency for Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters - as well as several Serbian investigative institutions.
"EUROPOL and the EUROJUST Project for Criminal Justice in the Western Balkans provided operational coordination, critical intelligence analysis and technical assistance for the implementation of the operation," the Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.
During the checks, authorities seized approximately 500,000 euros, 25,000 US dollars, 500 Swiss francs, 1,800 Israeli shekels, 500 Croatian kunas, 10,000 lek, 1,000 Swedish kronor, and 25,000 Russian rubles.
"23 search warrants have been executed on persons and residences and material evidence has been obtained," the Prosecution said.
According to the Prosecution, this action is a continuation of the operation of August last year, when the authorities in Skopje, in coordination with the Special Prosecution Office of Kosovo and with the support of Eurojust and EUROPOL, seized equipment for counterfeiting euro coins, both finished and semi-finished, molds and other materials for production.
In that operation, a police officer from North Macedonia was arrested in Kosovo, on suspicion of having produced around two million counterfeit two-euro coins.
He was part of the department for the fight against serious and organized crime in the Macedonian Police. Sources from the investigation told Radio Free Europe that the arrested man was part of the counterfeiting network, but not the main organizer of the operation.
The prosecution has also announced the development and results of the part of the operation carried out in Serbia.
"In the Republic of Serbia, raids were carried out in several locations, in Novi Pazar, Novi Sad, Sombor and Subotica. Six members of the criminal group were arrested, and 180,000 counterfeit euro banknotes were seized," the Prosecutor's Office announced. REL (A2 Televizion)
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