Press Releases 07
Bilateral Cooperation Nets $1,140,000 in False Currency
Mexico City, December 12, 2007 – “I heartily congratulate
the Mexican law enforcement community, including the Procuraduria
General de la Republica (Attorney General’s Office, PGR),
the Secretariat of Public Security (SSP), and other agencies
for their effective actions against counterfeiters. On December
10, in the culmination of a two-year investigation, Mexican
authorities recovered over one million dollars in counterfeit
U.S. $100 dollar bills in the raid of an illegal printing
press near Guadalajara, Jalisco. The dedicated, coordinated
cooperation between Mexican and U.S. law enforcement authorities
struck another serious blow against a criminal counterfeiting
ring that has passed millions of dollars in fake U.S. currency
since at least 2004.
“This action is the result of a joint investigation between
the United States Secret Service, the SSP and the PGR which
began in 2005 with information that counterfeit $100 dollar
bills being passed in the United State originated in Guadalajara.
Since that time, law enforcement operations on both sides
of the border resulted in multiple arrests and the recovery
of nearly two million dollars of counterfeit currency, mostly
in southern California. Yet the flow of fake money continued.
“The SSP apprehended a subject last week carrying $17,800
false dollars, leading to the execution of search warrants
and discovery of this counterfeiting operation in Jalisco.
This action followed a joint operation in May of this year
in which several leaders of this criminal organization were
arrested in the U.S. and in Mexico. I applaud the ongoing
cooperation between U.S. and Mexican law enforcement and banking
authorities, and am confident that it will lead to further
arrests and ultimately disband this and other international
counterfeiting rings.”
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