This noon on Friday, June 14, the Judicial Police, Dijín, announced the results of an operation developed in coordination with the United States Secret Service Agency (USS).
In the same, 10 people who “allegedly were part of a criminal group” were captured. dedicated to the counterfeiting of money and the seizure of sophisticated tools for the adulteration and manufacture of national and foreign currency in great quantities”.
The arrests were carried out in support of the Attorney General’s Office in the cities of Medellín (Antioquia) and Pereira (Risaralda), as well as in the municipality of Taminango in the department of Nariño.
According to the Dijín, the investigation was carried out for 13 months, and in it it was possible to establish “the existence of a common organized crime group, which The criminal modality was the use of human couriers and inter-municipal transportation to take the spurious currency to different parts of the country.“.
The purpose was to market and distribute it to other members of the organization and other traffickers who provide counterfeit money to be introduced into local commerce, thus affecting the country’s economy, the Police highlighted.
The dollars were counterfeited in low denomination bills.
Photo:Judicial Police, Dijín – Interpol
Up to 100 million pesos in counterfeit bills
The Judicial Police indicated that those captured – who are in the process of being prosecuted – They distributed counterfeit bills to different parts of the country in amounts ranging from one million pesos to 100 million..
He modus operandiTo send money to other departments was the use of courier and correspondence companies carefully and stealthily camouflaging (the banknotes) in envelopes, passing them off as documents and thus avoiding any suspicion on the part of the companies and the actions of the authorities.
The counterfeit bills that this network processed “They stood out for the similarity of the holographic system they presented, since they closely resembled an authentic bill.“.
They processed bills of 50 thousand and 100 thousand pesos.
Photo:Judicial Police, Dijín – Interpol
Within the judicial proceedings carried out in the cities of Medellín and Pereira, It was possible to seize 978,225,000 counterfeit Colombian pesos in bills of 50 and 100 thousand pesos.
In addition to an industrial sealing machine, several plates with watermarks and holograms of the 50 and 100 thousand Colombian peso bills, heat presses, the negatives of the counterfeit bills, industrial-type cutters, chemicals and paints.
In Taminango in Nariño, 244,300 counterfeit dollars in unfinished $50 bills were seized, a laser printer, 59 electrostatic plates with security logos for the 50 and 20 dollar bills, a computer and high quality lithographic inks; Likewise, an industrial type counterfeiting plant and an industrial paper guillotine were disabled at the scene.
Those captured were charged according to their role in the organization and participation in illegal activities, for the crimes of counterfeiting of national and foreign currency, trafficking in counterfeit currency and conspiracy to commit a crime.
Justice Editorial:
In X: @JusticiaET
