Overview
- After a late-October raid in Wuppertal, officers seized a “top equipped” lab with 13 printers that were still producing counterfeit sheets.
- The 32-year-old suspect and his 40-year-old partner are in pre-trial detention on allegations they manufactured and circulated more than €300,000 since 2023.
- Police say the pair sold mainly €50 notes under a pseudonym via internet forums and Telegram, accepting only crypto, with a price list from €15 per note to €8 at bulk volumes.
- The case grew from Ingolstadt probes into 2024 passings of fakes, which led to September convictions for about €31,000 in distributions and were traced to the Wuppertal source.
- Prosecutors described the seized bills as good quality, and Bundesbank figures show 72,400 counterfeit banknotes removed in 2024, a 28% rise year over year.