Two Arrests Result in Big Hauls of Counterfeit Cash

In two unrelated hauls, federal agents in San Diego seized more than $4 million in uncirculated counterfeit money--close to 30 times more than in the entire past year, authorities said Wednesday.

In the first case, Bobby Joe Stroecker, 47, and Irvine King Leitch, 60, both of Chula Vista, were arrested last month for investigation of conspiracy, forgery and possession of more than $3 million in counterfeit bills, said U.S. Atty. William Braniff.

The two men were indicted Jan. 29, by a grand jury in San Diego and have been released on $100,000 bail pending trial.

The arrests followed an investigation in which two undercover Secret Service agents were hired by Stroecker and Leitch to allegedly help print the money, said Joseph J. Perez, the U.S. Secret Service agent in charge of the investigation.

Because the $100 notes were only half-complete, none had been distributed, Perez said.

In a second indictment, a 26-year-old, National City man was charged with the manufacture and possession of more than $1 million in $20 bills, Perez said.

Rungson Taylor, an unemployed printer, was arrested Feb. 10, as he left a National City storefront where an offset printing operation had been set up. Secret Service agents were tipped to the operation by two neighboring merchants who found several hundred uncut sheets of $20 bills in nearby trash dumpsters.

Agents judged the printing quality of the seized $20 bills as “fair.” The color of the forgeries is lighter than the authentic green, and there is a black smudge over the Department of Treasury seal. Also, the traces of red-and-blue fiber woven into true federal reserve note paper are absent.

Upon cursory inspection, however, the bogus bills can look, feel and pass for real, Perez said. Several merchants in South Bay have accepted about 30 forged bills in the past month, he said. Authorities warned that there are likely more bills in circulation. They declined to say how many.

The two seizures are among the largest in San Diego in a decade, Perez said. In 1991, about $180,700 in counterfeit currency was seized before it was circulated. An additional $250,000 was detected by banks after it had been passed as real, agency records stated.

Although the arrests are significant by San Diego standards, local counterfeiting operations remain relatively small, Bennett said.

By comparison, agents in the country’s two most active cities for counterfeiting, Los Angeles and New York, may confiscate 10 times San Diego’s take during a given year, Perez said.