Police in Hong Kong Friday arrested six men as part of a crackdown on a syndicate of counterfeiters. Officers raided flats in the city's Kowloon district and arrested six men aged 17 to 30, some of whom were allegedly in the process of producing counterfeit 500 Hong Kong dollar (64 US dollar) bills. A police spokesman said they acted after taxi drivers and shopkeepers reported being passed false bank notes by suspected associates of the counterfeiters. The spokesman said police raided four different addresses and seized 23 fake bank notes as well as equipment used to manufacture them. The syndicate is believed to have been targeting shop owners and taxi drivers since September last year, usually passing the counterfeit notes at night. They would take a short taxi ride or make a small purchase and then hand over a 500 Hong Kong dollar bill, usually when the light was poor to reduce the chances of the forgery being spotted. --SP 22 22 Local Time 19 22 GMT
