After an investigation in Austria, a counterfeit trader who was active on the Darknet was arrested near Naples. The federal criminal investigation department announced that it is also investigating more than 100 buyers across Europe, four of which are in this country. The case started in November 2018, when Italian authorities informed their local colleagues about a postal shipment containing a large amount of counterfeit money.
The “blossoms” had been ordered on the Darknet and were already on their way to Austria, it was said at the time. “Since then, with the support of Europol, the Comando Carabinieri Antifalsificazione Monetaria, the public prosecutor’s offices of Naples North and Central, the public prosecutor’s office of Korneuburg and the Federal Criminal Police have been working together in close international cooperation to investigate the darknet seller (seller, comment),” said federal investigators Monday.
The trader in counterfeit money is said to have sold large quantities on the Darknet for years and sent them to many European countries. In December 2020, the first house searches were carried out on three suspects in Italy. Last Friday (January 13, 2023), eight arrest warrants were executed and another twenty house searches were carried out on the suspects in Italy. These would have managed the seller’s darknet account.
First convictions in Austria
In the course of the investigation, more than 100 counterfeit buyers across Europe have now been identified. Four people between the ages of 24 and 52 were identified as having ordered counterfeit money during “Operation Ermes”, according to federal investigators. You are already convicted. There are two Austrian, one Montenegrin and one Ukrainian citizen. In all four cases, the counterfeit money had already been intercepted and seized during shipment.
Anyone obtaining counterfeit money on the darknet or internet in Austria will be reported under Article 232 of the Penal Code, and the offense of counterfeiting is punishable by imprisonment from one to ten years.
Source: Krone
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