Shanghai police arrested three men suspected of producing and purchasing 30,000 counterfeit 100RMB bills.

Zhang Jiguo and Liang Qi stand accused of purchasing the counterfeit RMB with 60,000 yuan (7400 USD) within south China’s Guangdong Province on January 2, 2006, wrapping the counterfeit bills and sending them on to Shanghai where Zhang would pass the bills on to Liang. The two men were caught during the exchange with Diao Zhongiun being taken into custody thereafter. Shanghai police were able to retrieve the counterfeit funds, preventing the distribution of the fraudulent bills.

Further investigation is still underway. This is the largest counterfeiting operation tracked down in the eastern metropolis in the past 55 years, according to the city’s Yangpu District Procuratorate who said that the last time their was a counterfeiting operation of this magnitude it was 1949.