Bulgarian police disrupted fake money printing factory in Varna

More than 1 million and 350,000 false dollars and a printing factory for their production were identified by the Bulgarian police in the coastal city of Varna. The banknotes were of exceptionally high quality and were not recognized by ATMs and money counting machines as forgery.

At this stage, there is not information if the dollars were disseminated. Samples of them will be given for examination in the laboratories of Europol and Secret Service. Three people were detained.

This is the second counterfeit money printing factory which was disrupted on the Black Sea coast in the past two weeks.

The printing factory in Varna for high-quality fake dollars was found in a well-soundproofed garage of an expensive villa in Evksinograd area.

The police also found a high-quality offset printing machine and a print-based blend that imitates magnetic ink, making counterfeit banknotes extremely difficult to distinguish from genuine ones.

According to unofficial sources, it is likely that these counterfeit dollars were prepared to be put into circulation by ATMs that accept banknotes. According to analyses by services such as Secret Service, Europol and Interpol, this is usually happens in large megacities such as Istanbul, tourist destinations like Tunisia, resorts in the Indian Ocean, Philippines, and Indonesia.

Counterfeiters usually set up companies in offshore zones and thus feed their accounts. The printing factory in Varna was discovered after intelligence was received in the Directorate for Combatting Organised Crime.