US & EU Fraud Operation Leads To 178 Scammer Arrests

Some 178 people have been arrested in Europe and the United States after a huge operation into credit card cloning.

The international scam, worth over €20 million, saw police in fourteen countries participating in a two-year investigation initiated in Spain.

During the operation police discovered 120,000 stolen credit card numbers and 5,000 cloned cards. Spanish police alone arrested 76 people and dismantled six cloning labs.

The raids were made primarily in Ireland, Romania, France, Italy, Germany and the United States, with arrests made in Australia, Sweden, Greece, Finland and Hungary.

The detainees are also suspected of armed robbery, blackmail, sexual exploitation and money-laundering, the police said.

It is believed up to 12 people were arrested in Ireland.

The Irish arrested comes only days after a joint operation between Europol and Gardai when four men were arrested as part of a major investigation into what was described as "one of the most sophisticated money counterfeiting set-ups uncovered in Europe to date".

According to a Europol spokesman, the investigation led to a site near Borris–in–Ossory in the Irish midlands where the suspects had established an underground illicit print shop facility contained in two 40–foot containers serviced with electricity, heating and running water.

A large amount of security printing paper, inks and holograms were seized, as well as other materials used in the counterfeit printing process, including three industrial printers.

The operation, led by the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation and supported by the Emergency Response Unit, other national support units and local Garda from Abbeyleix, was initiated following analysis of increased activity in counterfeiting across Europe.

The four men in custody are aged in their 40s and 50s. Preliminary estimates indicate that their set–up had the potential to produce around 200 million counterfeit euros.

The site has been sealed off and Europol experts on–the–spot are carrying out a detailed technical examination together with a forensic investigation team from the Garda Technical Bureau.

A Garda spokesman declined to give details of the arrests today, but said gardaí were working closely on a daily basis with Europol and other European police forces to combat organised crime.

(DW/GK)