Tbilisi, Georgia
Georgian police and the U.S. Secret Service have uncovered a counterfeiting ring that has been churning out millions in "very high quality" $100 bills, U.S. officials said this week. Some of the bills have turned up in the Northeastern United States. Authorities seized more than $20 million in fake bills from one printing press in South Ossetia, an enclave in the Caucasus that broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s and is considered by Russia to be its protectorate. Organized-crime gangs operate with near impunity in the region, which has no officially recognized government. "Counterfeiting is not the only headache," said Ekaterine Zguladze, Georgia's deputy interior minister. "You also have drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, robbery, kidnappings." An official from the separatist government in South Ossetia said Georgians were exag-gerating the influence of criminal gangs to try to reassert sovereignty over the region.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Maha Kumbh Mela: world's largest religious festival gets under way in IndiaIn The Spotlight Politics of Hindu nationalism has cast a shadow over event touted as biggest ever gathering of humanity
-
North Carolina Supreme Court risks undermining its legitimacyUnder the radar A contentious legal battle over whether to seat one of its own members threatens not only the future of the court's ideological balance, but its role in the public sphere
-
Sudoku hard: January 14, 2025The Week's daily hard sudoku puzzle
