Police arrest boss of forgery ring

A businessman operating a printing shop in Manila's Tondo district is the alleged leader of a syndicate forging U.S. dollars that was recently busted by law enforcers in the Philippine capital.

During a press conference yesterday, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) chief, Reynaldo Wycoco, presented to reporters 63-year-old Lamberto del Mundo, the alleged leader of a local syndicate responsible for printing counterfeit U.S. currency and treasury bonds with a nominal value of one quadrillion dollars.

"He appears to have operated on an off-and-on basis since 1978. He would use big negatives of U.S. dollars for printing to come up with a high-resolution product that anybody could mistake for the real thing," said Wycoco.

Wycoco also said the NBI is now looking into whether Del Mundo and his companions are into human trafficking.

Del Mundo was charged before the Manila regional trial court for forging treasury or bank notes and other documents following his arrest Monday.

Apart from fake dollars, Del Mundo was also found to have made blank government pension cheques, fake traffic violation receipts and identification cards, and entry visas to Japan.

The NBI found the items, along with 200 counterfeit $100 bills and 13million $1 bills, in a raid of Del Mundo's house and printing shop.

"We found them to be of better quality than others but they don't have serial numbers yet. And the $1 million bills, I've never seen them before. We don't have them," said U.S. customs attache, David Meisner.

Also seized were several positive and negative films used in printing fake U.S. dollars, Philippine currency and other foreign currencies, including Yugoslav money.

NBI agents linked del Mundo to a ring making fake U.S. currency and bank notes whose three members were arrested on August 1.

Arrested at the time were Rustico Cabillar, 46; his common-law wife, Marnelli Pepino, 22; and Jose Rogando, 43. Seized from them were an estimated one quadrillion dollars nominal worth of fake U.S. Federal Reserve notes and counterfeit $100 bills.