$8.4M In Counterfeit Money Seized In Peru

(CBS)  The U.S. Secret Service announced the arrest of five people and the seizure of $8.4 million in counterfeit U.S. currency, as part of a bilateral effort to combat a rise in the spread of fake $100 bills.

The arrests were the result of work by a task force based in Lima created by the Secret Service and the Peruvian National Police.

The Peruvian Counterfeit Task Force was formed in February to combat an increase in counterfeit currency being passed throughout the United States (particularly in South Florida, New York, Newark and Los Angeles).

The fake bills were of a specific series of $100 notes that were believed to have been printed in Peru.

The Secret Service said today that two search warrants were executed for targets inside Peru on April 6 resulting in the arrests.

(U.S. Secret Service)

In addition to the seizure of $8.4 million in fake Federal Reserve Notes, the task force also collected eight lithographic printing presses 9left) and numerous plates and negatives.

[Dgunner]

I f you had twenty thousand of these at our current worth . You could say you had little grocery money.

[metsobitso]

Maybe they were trying to print stimulus money.

[jaykay3141]

We're only, oh, 20 years or so behind most other major countries in our anti-counterfeiting technology. Canada's bills have embedded holograms. Australia's bills are polymer. EU bills have special front-to-back plate alignments that are extremely difficult for most counterfeiters to duplicate. The new semi-colorized bills are better but still not as good as what Switzerland or the Czech Republic had in the 1990s.

On top of that the Treasury left redesign of the $100 till last, even though it's the most widely used American bill outside the U.S., AND there are zero plans to demonetize any of the pre-1996 bills that can be counterfeited on a decent computer printer. Nothing like making it easier for the crooks.

Until the functionaries and drones at Treasury break away from the grip of Crane Paper's lobbyists and a "we've always done it that way" mindset, there'll just be more and more fakes.

[sean1z]

The Department of the Treasury did a fine job thwarting desperate Felons. They appreciate South American Countries who cooperate with the effort against monetary fraud.