National Gendarmerie Dismantles Two African Networks Of Hard Currency Forgery

The National Gendarmerie has succeeded in busting two networks involved in foreign currency forgery last weekend in the western part of the country, APS reported on Saturday.

Members of the regional Gendarmerie brigade in Kerma (south of Oran province) were alerted on the basis of exploiting a reported information pertaining to the circulation of a large number of counterfeit banknotes in the national currency consisting of 14 sheets of (2,000) DA and 13 sheets of (1,000) DA, plus other forged banknotes in hard currency consisting of 72 sheets of 200 Euros, 40 sheets of 100 Euros and 71 sheets of 50 Euros.

According to the same source, 618 counterfeit papers and some counterfeiting solutions were confiscated in the process. All of these counterfeit banknotes were seized inside a house owned by a woman who that told investigators that the offenders had assigned the apartment to a forgery activity for more than a year.

At the time of her arrest, the latter admitted that she had “illegally” leased the residence to a number of African nationals who were shortly rounded up by the national gendarmerie elements after investigations led to the fact that the network was engaged in currency forgery and consisted of nationals from Mali and Cameroon who had converted this rented apartment into a workshop for their criminal activity.

Furthermore, after securing related information, the members of the regional brigade of the National Gendarmerie of Sidi Ali (Mostaganem province) swiftly intervened and arrested a person carrying a plastic bag containing 600 forged banknotes of 2,000 dinars, as he was heading towards the weekly car market in Masara municipality.

In all, six persons of different African nationalities and two Algerians were now behind bars for their involvement in this criminal activity in both the provinces of Relizane and Oran.

The relevant in-depth inquiry also allowed the seizure of a number of counterfeit banknotes of hard currency consisting of Euros and US Dollars, as well as “important” equipment used in counterfeiting including automated media, machines for cutting and processing counterfeit banknotes as well as special solutions and other items.