Fars Police Reports Discovery of '800,000 Euros in Counterfeit Banknotes' in Shiraz

The commander of the police force in Fars Province announced that a 39-year-old German national and a 33-year-old Cameroonian, who had defrauded an Iranian of 200,000 dollars, were arrested while planning to print 800,000 dollars in counterfeit 100-euro banknotes. According to the state news agency IRIB, Ahmad Ali Goudarzi stated on Thursday, October 21, that 16 packs of 500-sheet black paper for producing 100-euro counterfeit banknotes and two metal cans containing powder and chemicals were discovered from these two individuals. Meanwhile, a different report from the IRNA news agency quoted the Fars police chief as saying that the suspects had received the 200,000 dollars from an Iranian for 'investment'. The report indicated that the arrested individuals had turned this amount into 800,000 dollars 'through the printing of counterfeit banknotes, chemical alterations, and the merging of real and fake money to convert all funds into real money'. The police news site also quoted the Fars police chief stating that the suspects 'confessed to usually selecting their targets from traders and travelers going abroad'. They told those they had 'defrauded' that they were 'capable of converting a series of materials from real banknotes and performing chemical reactions to turn them into four real banknotes'. According to Goudarzi, during the chemical operations on real banknotes, which took place in the presence of their owner, they would take the opportunity to swap real banknote packs with fake ones. The Fars police chief announced that efforts to arrest the 'accomplices' of these two individuals and other 'victims' are ongoing. If the figures reported by the police officials are accurate, this case would be one of the largest foreign currency counterfeiting cases in Iran. Last November, Ahmad Karami, the head of the criminal investigation police in Qom Province, reported the arrest of an individual in that city for 'counterfeiting' 100-dollar banknotes worth 13 million tomans. According to this police official, central bank experts had stated that these dollars were 'counterfeited very skillfully, such that seven out of nine security features of the banknotes were adhered to'. According to Article One of the Law on Punishments for Disruptors of the Economic System in Iran, disruption of the monetary or currency system of the country through large-scale currency smuggling, counterfeiting, or the importation or distribution of them, whether domestic or foreign, is considered a crime and the perpetrator is punished according to the provisions of this law. Actions mentioned that are intended to 'harm' the Islamic Republic of Iran may result in the perpetrator being sentenced to the punishment of 'mohareb' (enemy of God).