Marina k’o Marina

An Italian man single handedly created one quarter of all counterfeit euros circulating in Europe, from his garage in Naples. Italian Police raided his house and uncovered a sophisticated hidden printing setup located behind the garage. He had constructed a false wall mounted on rails and concealed behind a wardrobe. The entire wall slid open when activated by a simple homemade electronic switch. Behind the secret entrance officers discovered a full scale production facility equipped with 31 digital printing machines operating around the clock. This lone operator had manufactured fake banknotes in 20, 50, and 100 euro denominations totaling 11 million euros in face value. He managed to distribute eight million euros worth of these counterfeits throughout Europe with the majority passing through France. Authorities recovered an additional three million euros in completed fake notes still on the premises waiting for shipment. The European Central Bank verified that the forgeries reached an outstanding level of quality. The holograms in particular were nearly indistinguishable from those on genuine currency. The fake bills had surfaced in ten separate countries before investigators finally linked every batch to this one individual operating out of Naples.