Investigators have so far found around 9,400 counterfeit banknotes in Bavaria this year. This shows a “rather declining trend” compared to the previous year, said a spokeswoman for the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) in Munich. Whether this will be confirmed by the end of the year cannot yet be conclusively assessed. But the number of reported counterfeit money offenses has also decreased. As in previous years, counterfeit 20 and 50 euro bills were found most frequently. In the past year, the number of “flowers” found in Bavaria rose sharply compared to the previous year. According to the LKA, 21,500 banknote copies had been collected by the end of November last year. In 2019 there were only 9,500 counterfeit notes. The trade in counterfeit money is therefore increasingly taking place online in the Free State as well: Euro counterfeit notes are increasingly being offered and sold via the Darknet, the LKA announced. The authority does not want to comment on this in more detail until a later date. In Bavaria, large amounts of counterfeit money had been seized again and again in recent months. On August 20, investigators arrested a 28-year-old in Munich who is said to have circulated several counterfeit 100 euro bills.
In February, the police seized counterfeit money of almost 10,000 euros from another man in Penzberg, Upper Bavaria. According to the police, the 43-year-old admitted that he had bought the money on the Internet. The notes were what is known as prop copy money, which is used in films, for example.