Colombia Seize $41M in Fake Money

AP ^ | Sunday December 30 7:51 PM ET | AP

[mdittmar]

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - U.S. and Colombian authorities on Sunday found $41 million in bogus U.S. dollars inside a house in Bogota - the largest seizure of counterfeit dollars in Colombia, police said.

The commander of the Colombian national police, Gen. Ernesto Gilibert, described the discovery to reporters as an ``overwhelming blow'' to the counterfeiting industry. Colombia is the world's top producer of phony dollars, responsible for nearly half of the false notes in circulation, authorities said.

U.S. Secret Service agents and Colombian police discovered the fake money packed in boxes in a middle-class neighborhood in the capital, Bogota, said National Police spokeswoman Ligia Escalante.

Police said at least one of the boxes was destined for Ecuador, which now uses the U.S. currency as its own. No one was captured in the raid.

U.S. and Colombian authorities have seized $65 million in false dollars this year in Colombia, Escalante said. Last year, authorities in Colombia found a dollars counterfeiting factory that they believe could have produced more than $1 billion before it was dismantled.

[mdittmar]

WOW!

[piasa]

With a little luck, maybe that'll cut into Hillary's campaign assets.

; )

[onyx]

Are they counterfeiting our new or our old bills? "Supposedly" our new bills with the 'thread' are counterfeit-proof!

[mdittmar]

$41 million in bogus U.S. dollars

The dollar doesn't have the thread.

Saw a picture of the seized money on the tube.

It was a room full.

That's alot of 1 dollar bills.

[onyx]

A LOT of dollar bills, that's for sure. Thnaks for enlightening me. I WAS worried. (I could have lots of fun playing slot machines with a wad or two of that money!)

[chainsaw]

Hillary's chinese campaign money down the drain.

[Delta 21]

Something deep inside me tells me that the "EURO" will never ever have this kind of problem.

[DonQ]

There have been reports that there are some counterfeits of the new bills that are so good at imitating many of the new features that they fooled experts (evidently until someone went to enormous efforts to do microscopic examinations of ALL of the new features).

[robnoel]

Massive Dollar Counterfeiting Activities

In early 1970s, North Korea purchased intaglio printers and printing ink from Europe to build a forged bill production line comprised of intaglio, type and lithograph printers. At the end of the 1970s, North Korea started to circulate crudely forged dollars in Africa and the Middle East for a test purpose.

Since early 1970s, North Korea has been producing forged U.S. dollars with the same printing method as the one used for real dollar bills. These fake notes, which can not be detected with bare eyes, are dubbed as super notes. Currently, there exist a couple of organizations in North Korea that are in charge of production of counterfeit bills including 'February Silver Trading Co.' near Pyongyang. Allegedly, North Korea churns out annual US$ 15 million of fake bills to put them into circulation through its diplomats and trading companies.

[robnoel]

Euro note printing plate stolen

By Dan Atkinson Friday May 22, 1998

The highly contentious design of the euro may have to be abandoned following the mysterious disappearance of the vital printing plate that was to be used to stamp security holograms on the new notes. Investigators are trying to trace the whereabouts of the unique design after it went missing "somewhere between Paris and Munich".

[Delta 21]

BWHAAAA!!!!