With billions of new notes in circulation, authorities fear crime may increase

(CNN) -- Police chiefs and economists alike fear that the arrival of the euro will have Europe's criminal classes rubbing their hands in glee. Indeed, some may be reaping an illicit benefit already.

"The change to the euro will represent a unique opportunity for organised crime,” says Vincent Harvey, director of the UK National Criminal Intelligence Service.

The biggest monetary experiment in history could benefit those operating on the wrong side of the law in three key areas: robbery, counterfeiting and money laundering.

Criminal opportunities began in September 2001, when monetary authorities began transporting 50 billion new coins across Europe, as well as billions of new euro banknotes from 15 different printing presses.

Firms supplying armoured cars saw an upsurge in business as people sitting on large stocks of "mattress money" in the old national currencies sought to make use of the funds before they became worthless.

Europol, the EU-wide police agency, has pointed out that the most expensive of the seven new notes, the 500 euro bill, is worth more than the most expensive note in 11 of the 12 euroland currencies. It has already been nicknamed the "gangsters’ note."

The world of organised crime likes the idea of a high-value bill. The 500 euro is worth some $570, or £305 -- 10 times as much, for example, as the highest-denomination note previously issued in Italy. The new note makes it possible to pack more than 7 million euros -- $6.37 million, or £4.4 million -- in an average briefcase.

"All large-denomination currencies are conducive to drug money transportation and aggregation, and therefore facilitate laundering," says Michael Levi, professor of criminology at Cardiff University.

A single currency also may make it harder to catch money launderers, who sometimes have left a trail when converting money from one currency to another.

While acknowledging their worries on the money-laundering front, authorities hope they can at least keep ahead of the counterfeiters.

Expertise from banks in all 12 euroland countries has been pooled to produce notes the authorities hope will be hard to reproduce illicitly, with such features as fluorescent fibres, see-through registers, foil holograms, watermarks and security threads.

Initially that may not worry the criminal fraternity. Police fear some of them will hope to cash in with comparatively crude forgeries before the 300 million euroland inhabitants are fully accustomed to the new notes.

Also, gangs with stocks of counterfeit bills in the old national currencies were under pressure to get rid of them all before March 1, 2002, after which the national currencies were no longer legal tender.

Indeed, counterfeit activity was already on the rise before the euro launch in Germany, where authorities say 63 percent more fake marks were pulled out of circulation in the first three months of 2001 compared to 2000.

CNN's Diana Muriel contributed to this report.