Hundreds of millions of false Algerian dinars printed in Lyon

LYON ((FRANCE) - Twelve people were jailed and indicted Sunday after the discovery of printing that has made hundreds of millions of false Algerian dinars in Lyon in central France, according to a judiciary source.

•     "This is one of the most important cases of counterfeit currency in France these last ten years," said one source close to the investigation.
  
      The judicial police in Lyon, which had set up surveillance since April, arrested the weekend 12 French aged 30 to 60, including some suspected members of organized crime from Lyon or Marseille.
  
      Indicted for criminal conspiracy and forgery in particular, they are in custody.
  
      In the printing house, with a storefront in the 3rd arrondissement of Lyon, police discovered cash Algerian paper, from an armed robbery committed in 2006 in Marseille, the plates of printed banknotes and 30,000 banknotes of 1,000 dinars (10 Euros) ready for use.
  
      The network has already used at least 200,000 banknotes of 1,000 dinars, or nearly 2 million Euros, the source said.
  
      The investigation was conducted under the authority of the interregional court specialized (Jirs), by the judicial police in Lyon and Marseille, situated on the Mediterranean coast, with the support of the French Central Office for combating counterfeiting. It has not yet established how fake dinars, part of which passed through Paris, were put on the market in Algeria.
  
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.