ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
July 1, 2004 Thursday 4:29 AM Eastern Time

Major group of counterfeiters detained in Russia

By Svetlana Alikina

MOSCOW

Russian and Armenian police have detained 22 members of an
international group of counterfeiters, the press service of the
Russian Interior Ministry’s department for fight against economic
crimes told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

According to the sources, the group was specializing in
counterfeiting 500-rouble and 1,000-rouble banknotes. An illegal
printing house was situated in Moscow suburbs. From there, the forged
money was transported to other Russian regions.

There are Russian and Armenian nationals among the seized
counterfeiters, the press service reported. Investigators have
already revealed 192 cases in which money was sold in 48 Russian
regions.

The sources said the operation had been carried out jointly by
Russian and Armenian police. Seventeen suspects are already facing
criminal charges. They also stressed that it was not the first
successful operation against counterfeiters by law enforcement
agencies from the two countries.

They said some time ago Russian and Armenian police had exposed a
criminal group that was counterfeiting 1,000-rouble banknotes. A
total of 100,000 counterfeited roubles were seized from them.

The masterminds, Armenian nationals Gevorg Kazaryan and Eduard
Minosyan, were sentenced to 6.5 years in prison.