SOFIA, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Bulgarian authorities have neutralized an organized criminal group responsible for making and distributing counterfeit banknotes and documents, and arrested nine suspects, the Interior Ministry said on Friday.
During the operation on Thursday, the law enforcers carried out 30 searches in different locations in the country, the ministry said in a statement.
In the underground floor of a building in Sunny Beach resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, the authorities uncovered a printing house for counterfeit banknotes and seized "a large number of counterfeit dollar and euro banknotes," the statement said.
Meanwhile, in the home of one of the detainees in Plovdiv, the second-largest Bulgarian city, counterfeit 100-euro and 50-USD banknotes amounting to a total of nearly 700,000 dollars as well as counterfeit Bulgarian ID cards were seized, it said.
According to initial data, the fake banknotes were of very good quality and were distributed in Bulgaria, the statement said.
The investigation began early last year, it added. Enditem
