20101106
africanews

Algerian police have dismantled a band of currency forgers who have injected some 48 million euros in fake banknotes on to the market. "This is believed to be one of the biggest networks of traffickers using Algeria for their main target". There has been no details of the crackdown operation.

According to police sources, the forgers – three in number - put the equivalent of five billion Algerian dinars (48 million euros, 68 million dollars) into circulation, in dinars, euros and other currencies.

The three men, aged between 27 and 35, were unemployed and had no previous criminal record, but the paper said that they had established ties with the mafia in Italy and France. The public prosecutor ordered they be detained, according to AFP.

El-Watan Week-end speculated that many pilgrims have supplied themselves with false currency on the black market to make their journey to Mecca for the holy pilgrimage.

The black market exchange is always more favourable to customers than the official bank rate.