Bulgaria Confiscated Counterfeit Minting Machines

Bulgaria's police uncovered the premises of a criminal group, busted last week, and found the machines that the culprits used to mint fake euro coins, officials announced Monday.

The machines were found in the Yoakim Gruevo village in the Plovdiv region, along with other counterfeiting equipment. This is the same village where the local police department in cooperation with the organized crime combat service busted a group producing euro coins.

Three houses in the village were raided and the police discovered matrixes for 2-euro coins, a ready coin of this nominal, some matrixes for numismatic coins and seven minted such coins with yellow coating. It is still undetermined whether the coating contains gold or not.

During the first raid, the police had found counterfeit identification documents, the stamps of different state institutions, psychological attestations for drivers, and many stolen identity cards. Four men had been arrested.