Government agents yesterday arrested members of a dollar counterfeiting ring while confiscating fake American currency and U.S. treasury bills nominally worth quadrillion of dollars, the biggest seizure in the country so far.
Government agents yesterday arrested members of a dollar counterfeiting ring while confiscating fake American currency and U.S. treasury bills nominally worth quadrillion of dollars, the biggest seizure in the country so far.
During a press briefing, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo presented three suspects who are believed to be members of a counterfeiting ring. Rustico Cabillar, 46, his common-law wife, Marnelli Pepino, 22, and Jose Rogando, 43, were captured in two separate raids in their safehouses in Manila and Quezon City.
The president said the seizure of the counterfeit money is so far the biggest.
The suspects were arrested during joint operations of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Central Bank of the Philippines (BSP).
The investigation report showed that the suspects tried to sell several $100 bills to NBI informants at the cheap price of P600 ($12) each.
Yesterday, the combined NBI-BSP operatives caught suspect Rogando in the act of receiving marked money after the latter handed over 150 fake U.S. dollar bills to a government agent posing as a buyer in Manila's Santa Cruz district. During investigation, Rogando pointed to Cabillar as the source of the fake U.S. bills.
Seized from the suspects were numerous U.S. Federal Reserve notes, Wells Fargo bank certificates, thousands of fake $100 bills, transparencies, printing equipment and other paraphernalia that include computers and several compact discs.
The suspects, who are currently detained at the NBI detention centre, were charged with violating the country's law against forging money.
Lolito Utitco, NBI director for investigation, said they are still studying whether charges of economic sabotage can be filed against the suspects as the bureau's investigation showed that most of the group's transactions involved foreign-based syndicates.
"At first glance, these fakes could pass off as genuine to untrained eyes. The sophisticated nature of their equipment indicates that the notes were ordered by foreign-based syndicates," Utitco said.
David Meisner, U.S. customs attache to Manila, said he is now working with the NBI to uncover foreign syndicates behind the counterfeit ring.
Both Meisner and the NBI are looking into the possible link between the three suspects arrested yesterday and two Americans, a certain W.F. Grubl and Keith Le Blanc, who was believed to be behind a forging racket whose operations were busted last last month in Manila's suburb of Paranaque.
The NBI found the fake U.S. treasury notes nominally worth $2.5 trillion inside a warehouse that was rented by Grubl and Le Blanc.
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