-Caveat Lector- From http://www.guardian.co.uk/EMU/Story/0,2763,556179,00.html }}}>Begin Balkan forgers ready to cash in on euro Special report: economic and monetary union Rory Carroll in Belgrade Saturday September 22, 2001 The Guardian Criminal gangs in the Balkans have begun a huge operation to profit from the introduction of the single currency by flooding the European market with counterfeit euros, the authorities warned yesterday. Some analysts believe that the criminals - currency forgers with vast experience - could threaten the stability of the currency when about 14.5bn unfamiliar notes go into circulation in little more than three months' time. Police forces in the 12 European Union countries that are adopting the euro have pooled intelligence and prepared joint strategies to combat the forgers, but the Balkans gapes open as a zone of little control. Forgers there know how to produce high-quality fakes and, crucially, how to filter them into Europe's economy. Despite efforts to keep the security features of the new notes secret, Britain's national criminal intelligence service believes that the counterfeiting has begun. The EU and Europol do not want to hear stories such as that of a Serbian policeman, Captain Ortic, who thought he had one of those welcome cases where the bad guys were caught holding the evidence - in this instance, bags of forged banknotes. There were witnesses to affirm their guilt and conviction seemed assured. The two men were not merely couriers; they were bosses of a Balkan smuggling racket and had been targets for the authorities for about five months. Capt Ortic - his real rank, not his real name - took a morning off to watch them being sent down in a Belgrade court. The judge avoided his gaze when he delivered the verdict: not guilty. The judge blamed insufficient evidence and holes in the prosecution. The defendants exchanged smiles, but did not appear surprised. They walked out of the courthouse to a waiting car. A rare victory over counterfeiters had turned to dust and Capt Ortic draws his own conclusions: "There is no point chasing these guys when they can bribe judges. From now on I'll stick to bank robbers." It is inevitable that the Balkan underworld will swap the US dollar for the euro as its currency of choice, one British diplomat specialised in the field believes. Its high denomination - a 500 euro note will be more than four times more valuable than a $100 bill - and multi-national acceptance are powerful lures. Europol admits that operational agreements with Balkan states will not be in place by January, when the euros begin to circulate, but claims that cooperation with the Balkan law enforcement agencies is intensive. Capt Ortic disagrees. As the head of one of the Belgrade police force's anti-counterfeiting units, he says he has had no contact with Europol and that his men are wholly unprepared for the challenge. Resources are scant and they have orders to concentrate on types of fraud which matter more to their superiors, such as fake government documents. "Frankly I have no incentive to chase false euros," he says.The euro is de emed the concern of Brussels, even though in Serbia it will act as a shadow currency to the Yugoslav dinar. It will be the official currency in Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The two men freed by the judge had been carrying fake German marks, but Capt Ortic is sure their network, which spans Albania and Bosnia, has begun printing euros. In the decade since commu nism and Yugoslavia collapsed, gangsters have enjoyed a free-for-all in parts of the Balkans, routinely smuggling weapons, drugs, cars, cigarettes and people. Joining that illicit trail, the British diplomat says, will be bags stuffed with euros from presses sophisticated enough to fool most people. The Russian mafia alone is believed to operate three printing shops in Bulgaria, from where the notes follow the "tobacco route", through Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro and Greece. The Montenegrin newspaper Dan says that the gangs have improved their reproduction of the British pound and will soon circulate counterfeit sterling as well. All this adds up to busy times for Belgrade's biggest black market currency dealer, an affable and reformed gambler known as "the doctor". In the past two months he has been besieged with requests for dollars and Swiss francs. Taking out a three-inch wad of marks from his pocket, he says: "That's just from the past three days." "From the big guys to the little guys, it's the same story - everyone's hoping to make a killing from the euro." 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