Officials Seize $17 Million in Counterfeit Bills
More than $17 million in counterfeit U.S. currency and $4 million in bogus travelers checks have been seized from a ring that passed the bogus money in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, the U.S. Secret Service announced Thursday.
Authorities, displaying about $2 million of the phony money spread out in stacks of 10s, 20s and 100s, said an indictment was unsealed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan charging five men with conspiring to make, pass and sell the worthless paper.
Some of the money even turned up in Poland, and several hundred fake dollars washed up on the New Jersey shore in Lavalette Beach and Seaside Heights. Peter A. Cavicchia II, special agent in charge of the Secret Service in Morristown, N.J., said the bills in the water indicated that “somebody wanted to get rid of it.”
Cavicchia said the investigation began in November when the Drug Enforcement Agency seized three men in Bergen County for possession of narcotics and $2,000 in counterfeit bills. The next day the Secret Service picked up two Polish nationals in New York City.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
