The police also recovered a cache of local and foreign currency – including Indian rupee, dirham, riyal, euro, – and a printing machine, paper and a cutter.
CIA SP Umer Virk said some members of the busted gang members were in the UAE, Afghanistan and the FATA. He said police were trying to arrest the remaining members of the group.
Those arrested on Thursday were identified as Umer Sohail, Shahzad Khan, Ali Raza, Muhammad Anwar, Muhammad Zaigham, Sher Baaz Khan and Rasheed.
Umer Sohail, Shahzad Khan and Ali Raza were arrested from near Data Darbar and the other suspects from Bund Road. Police said that Muhammad Zaigham, the ring-leader, had been declared a proclaimed offender by the FIA.
The suspects had set up a printing press at a house in Mughal Park near Bund Road.
Police said the suspects would transport the counterfeit currency to Afghanistan from where they would take it to the United Arab Emirates. In the UAE, their accomplices would deposit the currency in an account using ATM machines, and later withdraw it from some other account.
Police said authorities in the UAE had intercepted the network when one of the suspects tried to deposit the money in an ATM. The UAE authorities had then shared the information with Lahore police that resulted in the arrest of the seven men.
Shahzad Khan, one of the suspects, told The Express Tribune that he was a truck driver. “My job was to transport paper to various places,” he said. He said that he lived in Peshawar and had come to Lahore to visit a doctor when police arrested him from a hotel.
Umer Sohail said that he ran a computer shop in Peshawar. He said he was a friend of Shahzad Khan. He said he was escorting Shahzad Khan to Lahore for his check-up.
Asked whether the counterfeit currency was used to fund terrorism, Umer Virk said investigation in this regard was underway. “What we do know so far is that they would sell the notes at duty-free shops,” the SP said.
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