One of the world's top counterfeiters of 50-euro notes has been arrested in the central Spanish city of Toledo, with a home laboratory that produced 2500 phoney notes a day, police say.
The counterfeit currency printed by the man, whose identity was not released, has been rated among the 10 best, in terms of their quality, in Europe, said investigators, who estimate that he produced a total of some 2 million euros ($A3.08 million) in fake notes.
Police also arrested three other people in the southern province of Jaen on charges of placing the notes in circulation.
The network's centre of operations was located in a chalet in Toledo, where the 60-year-old ringleader, a self-taught expert in graphic arts, printed up the fake notes with the help of his wife, investigators said.
The bogus money had crossed the Spanish border and made its way into France, Portugal, Greece, Germany and Romania, said Alfredo Cabezas, the head of the Spanish central bank's investigative unit, which headed the operation to catch the counterfeiter with the collaboration of Europol.
The man had built a special homemade stove in his home to dry the notes he made.
Printers, laminators, metallic plates, negatives, inks, presses and thermoprinting machines were among the tools confiscated by police in the home, as well as large quantities of both counterfeit and legitimate currency.
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