Twenty-seven people were arrested and 230,000 yuan (HK$213,900) in forged banknotes seized when police smashed a counterfeiting ring based in Hebei province, it was reported yesterday.
Officers in Handan city arrested the alleged ringleader Hao Jinsheng on August 9 after a tip-off. Hao, from Henan province, was found to have 90,000 yuan in forged notes in his hotel room.
After Hao confessed, police set traps and captured 11 other suspects who went to the hotel to pick up the fake cash.
The other suspects were caught elsewhere in Hebei, Henan and Shanxi provinces, Xinhua said.
Police said since September last year Hao had gone to Guangdong and Henan to buy more than one million yuan in forgeries.
Using the Five Continent and Feng Sheng hotels in Handan for transactions, Hao passed on the forgeries to the other 26 who distributed them.
In a separate case, Customs authorities in Xiamen, Fujian province, found a Japanese company had smuggled alloy steel sheets and hardware tools valued at 3.53 million yuan through an import company.
