A Macedonian police officer, arrested in Kosovo, is suspected of having produced around 2 million counterfeit 2-euro coins, according to the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust). Thousands of coins produced by his group ended up in Kosovo.
The 34-year-old officer, rather than pursuing counterfeiters and criminals, became a counterfeiter himself. The detainee, arrested on August 4th in Pristina, is from Resen, North Macedonia. He worked in the Macedonian police department for combating serious crimes and organized crime. “The investigation will aim to uncover the full extent of the counterfeiting,” Eurojust said.
Sources from Radio Free Europe reported that the arrested individual was part of a counterfeiting network but was not the “brain” of the operation.
His arrest came after months of planning by Macedonian and Kosovar authorities, with support from Eurojust and the European Police Agency (EUROPOL).
Colleagues of the arrested policeman from the Department for the Fight Against Serious Crime and Organized Crime also participated in the investigation, according to the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office. The multi-month investigation involved intelligence officials, investigators, and prosecutors from both Kosovo and North Macedonia.
Where Were the Counterfeit Coins Produced?
The counterfeit coins were produced with two machines in a basement in Skopje.
The police also seized two bags of coins. The counterfeiters used six different versions of the side of the coin where the 2-euro value is indicated.
In a joint statement from Macedonian and Kosovar prosecutors, it was stated that hundreds of thousands of counterfeit coins “produced” in North Macedonia had “flooded” the Kosovo market since last year. However, the latest statement from the Central Bank of Kosovo suggests that the problem with counterfeit money is even greater.
This is because, over a year and a half, the Central Bank of Kosovo has withdrawn 2.5 million 2-euro coins from circulation, amounting to a total value of 5 million euros.
This institution stated that approximately 54,000 2-euro denominations were detected and prevented from entering the financial system, “by withdrawing them from circulation as counterfeit.”
However, the counterfeit coins produced in the Skopje basement did not only end up in Kosovo. They also circulated within the country where they were produced, in North Macedonia. The counterfeit coins entered circulation in Macedonian territory through tolls paid for highway use, where only foreign currencies are allowed.
The responsible bank for collecting these revenues then sent the questionable coins to the National Bank of North Macedonia for verification.
The National Bank of North Macedonia told Radio Free Europe that in the last three years, they have discovered more than 50,000 euros in counterfeit coins.
This bank conducts various inspections and analyses to determine whether the coins are genuine or fake.
Just last year, a total of 11,489 euros in metallic coins were discovered, of which 11,112 were 2-euro coins and 367 were 1-euro coins. In 2022, 10,717 2-euro coins and 231 1-euro coins were also found to be counterfeit, according to the National Bank.
The arrest of the Macedonian police officer was not the first case of a Macedonian national being arrested in Kosovo under suspicion of circulating counterfeit coins. Last December, the Kosovo Special Prosecutor’s Office announced the arrest of three Macedonian nationals and three Kosovars after they were found with counterfeit 2-euro coins worth 85,000 euros.
They were arrested on November 28, and the Kosovar Prosecutor’s Office later revealed that the operation uncovered a total of 42,505 2-euro coins.
At that time, the Prosecutor’s Office stated that they had concealed the counterfeit money in several bags, camouflaging them to look like regular goods, and had sent them to Kosovo on November 28.
The Special Prosecutor’s Office said that the three Macedonian suspects had met with three Kosovar suspects in a village near Ferizaj and then traveled together to Pristina.
Kosovo is not part of the Eurozone but uses the euro.
In July last year, at least two other cases were registered in Kosovo where thousands of counterfeit euros, coming from North Macedonia and Turkey, were confiscated.
At that time, Kosovo’s Radio Free Europe service spoke with several account holders on the TikTok app, who confirmed that they could bring counterfeit money to Kosovo. To avoid committing a crime, RFE did not order fake money from these profiles to confirm if they were indeed being sent.
The Kosovo Police had not responded to RFE regarding whether they were investigating these profiles or individuals who claimed to manage these accounts on social media.
According to the Kosovo Penal Code, anyone who produces counterfeit money to circulate as genuine is punished with imprisonment from one to ten years.
Profitable Business for Criminals
For criminals, this is a profitable business because very rarely does a merchant or payer check if the money is counterfeit, even though it can be easily done.
Original coins of one, two, and five cents are made of copper coated with steel and are very magnetic. On the other hand, the outer rings of original 1 and 2 euro coins, as well as 10, 20, and 50 cent coins, are not metallic, according to experts from the German Central Bank.
The profits from counterfeit money “fly under the radar” since these metallic coins can circulate very easily due to their low economic value and are used in everyday transactions. They are detected less frequently due to their low value, unlike paper money, which has a higher value.
Penalties for Counterfeiting
According to Macedonian laws, for circulating counterfeit money, a person can be sentenced to one to ten years in prison. However, if the crime has caused “disturbances in the country’s economy,” a minimum of five years imprisonment is foreseen.
Under North Macedonian laws, anyone who accidentally pays or receives counterfeit money is punished, and the money is confiscated without compensation.
In the last two years, the European Central Bank has warned of a large “flood” of counterfeit money in Eurozone markets.
For example, in 2023 approximately 115,900 counterfeit coins were detected during payments made in Germany, while this number in 2022, according to the German Central Bank data, was around 73,400. According to statistics, this equates to 14 counterfeit coins for every 10,000 residents in Germany.
In April of this year, Spanish police targeted a criminal group suspected of distributing counterfeit 2-euro coins throughout Europe. With the help of EUROPOL, workshops where the counterfeit money was produced were found in Toledo, Spain. This gang had introduced nearly 500,000 “high-quality” counterfeit coins into the European market. Ten people, reported to be Chinese nationals, were arrested.
According to the news agency DPA, the investigation “was exceptionally difficult, not only because the gang was so secretive but also because it is practically impossible to trace counterfeit money.”
Until December 2021, nearly 141 billion coins were in circulation across the Eurozone, according to data from the European Central Bank.
