178 held as Spanish police bust credit card fraudsters

Spanish police said today they had broken up a vast international network that produced fake credit cards, an operation that led to the arrests of 178 people in 12 countries.

Spanish police said on Tuesday they had broken up a vast international network that produced fake credit cards, an operation that led to the arrests of 178 people in 12 countries.

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Members of the gang used real credit card numbers to produce fake cards which they then used to withdraw money from cash machines and make payments, police said in a statement.

The network was also involved in "theft, swindling, sexual exploitation and money-laundering".

Its activities brought them "profits of more than 20 million euros", police said.

Seventy-six people were held in Spain as part of the operation, 30 in France, 16 in Romania, 16 in Germany, 12 in Ireland, eight in United States, seven in Italy, four in Hungary, three in Finland, two in Australia, two in Sweden and two in Greece.

Police did not indicate the nationalities of those arrested.