Africa-Press – Mozambique. Five people have been arrested in Gurué, in the Mozambican province of Zambézia, suspected of forging metical notes worth €8,166 using home printers, the police announced on Thursday.
According to information provided to journalists by the district commander of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) in Gurué, in the centre of the country, the arrest resulted from a joint operation with the Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC).
The operation also culminated in the “seizure of 612,000 meticais [€8,166 euros] in counterfeit notes, and the seizure of computer equipment used to manufacture them,” said José Quirimpeiro, acknowledging that reports of counterfeiting in the town of Gurué persist, albeit “timidly”, even with the arrest of the suspects.
The suspects confessed to the crimes, explaining that they were able to reproduce around 130,000 meticais (€1,735) worth of counterfeit notes per day in denominations of 1,000 meticais (€13.50), 500 meticais (€6.70) and 200 meticais (€2.70).
On June 16, 2024, the Bank of Mozambique introduced a new series of metical notes and coins adopted to control counterfeiting and inflation of the national currency.
According to the then announcement by the governor of the central bank, the new series was intended to gradually replace the one that had been in circulation since 2006.
“Central banks tend to review their notes and coins in circulation every five years, in order to adapt them to new trends in design, security and other contextual elements”, explained Rogério Zandamela at the time, justifying that the institution “decided to review the metical notes and coins”.
“The theme of the metical notes and coins of the 2024 series maintains the tradition of extolling the values of our cultural, historical and faunal heritage”, he stated at the same time.
The new series, launched on the day of the metical – the Mozambican currency was launched on 16 June 1975 – maintained in circulation the previous six banknotes.
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