Criminals stole antique books worth 2.5 million euros: Europol detained a group of “book hunters”
Europol has announced the successful investigation and arrest of a criminal group that stole rare antiquarian books from libraries across Europe during 2022-2023. According to law enforcement officers, the total cost of “catch” of criminals reaches 2.5 million euros.
This is reported Euronews.
As part of this case, nine Georgians were detained in Georgia and Lithuania, who were probably involved in this conspiracy. According to the investigation, criminals stole at least 170 valuable books. The perpetrators acted according to a cunning scheme: they visited libraries, pretending to be of scientific interest, and asked for permission to get acquainted with antique books. Once they gained access, they carefully measured and photographed the editions and then returned them to their place.
After some time, the criminals came to the library again, asked for the same books, but instead of the originals, they replaced them with high-quality counterfeit copies. Europol experts confirmed the high skill of counterfeiters.
In some cases, criminals did not limit themselves to tricks and simply committed thefts. To do this, they carefully studied the libraries, choosing the target books, and then broke into the premises and stole them.
During the special operation, in which more than 100 officers took part, searches were conducted in 27 different places. Thanks to cooperation with the authorities of 10 European countries, it was possible to detain the suspects and seize 150 books. The provenance of these volumes is currently being established.
