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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | December 2005 
Mexican Phony-Money Ring Busted
 CNN News
| | Multinational ring suspected of printing millions in fake hundreds. |
Mexico City - Mexican investigators announced Wednesday the dismantling of a cross-border counterfeiting ring that printed an estimated $5 million in fake $100 bills in Mexico and sold them in the United States.
Authorities arrested six people, including a man believed to be a former state police officer, and seized nearly $400,000 in fake bills during raids Friday in the western state of Jalisco, where the operations were based, said Jose Luis Marmolejo of the federal attorney general's organized crime division.
Marmolejo said the counterfeiting ring was in operation for more than four years, printing the phony bills in Mexico and selling them north of the border.
Also last Friday, U.S. Secret Service agents arrested 10 people and seized $75,000 during raids on three houses in Santa Ana, California, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Keenan, who first announced the investigation last Saturday. Keenan said 13 people were indicted in the U.S. for allegedly selling the counterfeit bills.
Officials suspect that more than 30 people belonged to the organization, which sold the $100 bills on the U.S. black market in Santa Ana and San Diego, California, and in Phoenix, Arizona, Marmolejo said.
The arrests took place following a joint two-year investigation that began after the Secret Service tipped off Mexican authorities to the ring, he said.
Mexican authorities also seized six guns, ammunition, printing equipment and printing chemicals during the raid on eight buildings in Jalisco. The bills, produced with offset printing equipment, were well made -- "one of the best falsifications we've seen," Marmolejo said.
Among those arrested in Mexico were two alleged leaders of the organization. They were identified as Jose Maria Loaiza Gaspar, who officials believe is a former state police officer in Jalisco, and Carlos Enrique Barajas Duran.
Marmolejo said he did not know their ages, and that officials were not yet releasing the names of the other detainees to protect the investigation. |
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