$423,000 in Fake Bills Seized; Man Arrested
A Poway man was charged Tuesday with counterfeiting after U.S. Secret Service agents raided a small office in San Diego’s Old Town and discovered about $423,000 in uncompleted, bogus $20 bills.
The Secret Service on Tuesday also announced the unrelated arrest of a Phoenix man for passing a bogus $100 bill in a San Diego department store--an arrest that took investigators to a Phoenix home where they found an additional $100,000 in phony $100 bills.
Both men were being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, each on $20,000 bail.
The Poway man was identified as Ira Marvin Dickey, 38, who had been under investigation for the last three weeks, said Stephen Sergek, special agent in charge of the Secret Service field office in San Diego.
Sergek would not disclose what tipped investigators to the case, but he said a search warrant was served Saturday afternoon at a small, unidentified office in Old Town.
Agents said they seized the counterfeit $20 bills in various stages of completion, along with negatives, plates, a printing press, camera, paper cutter, inks and other related items.
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