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Ernesto Benavides / AFP - Getty Images
Sheets of counterfeit $50 bills seized by Peru's Department of Criminology are presented to the press in Lima on Wednesday.
Peruvian police have seized $2.3 million in counterfeit dollars, which a family clan planned to smuggle into the United States hidden inside souvenirs from the Andean country, reports said.
According to the British Broadcasting Corp., which cited Peruvian police chief Raul Salazar, the Quispe Rodriguez family clan was responsible for the production of the fake $50 bills.
U.S. officials have said that Peru is the largest foreign producer of counterfeit American money.
Authorities in Peru have seized $17 million in fake currency in 2012 alone, according to the BBC.
Salazar said Luis Alfredo Obando, a man allegedly belonging to the Quispe Rodriguez family clan, was arrested, the BBC said.
US: Peru overtakes Colombia as top cocaine producer
The money and materials for the production of the fake money were seized in the Peruvian capital, Lima, the BBC reported.
Other members of the Quispe Rodriguez clan were arrested in mid-July with $2 million in fake U.S. dollars and 1.5 million counterfeit euros, the Peruvian Times reported.
Among the members of the family allegedly used in the smuggling operation was a 13-year-old boy, the newspaper said.
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According to a 2009 report in the Los Angeles Times, many counterfeit currency smugglers use techniques also employed by drug gangs, such as hiding the fake money on human "mules" to get the fake paper inside the country.
Complete international coverage on NBCNews.com
"It's a form of economic terrorism," the Los Angeles Times quoted John Large, the assistant special agent in charge of the Secret Service's criminal division, as saying at the time.
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i thought it was the current administration..... must be another typo.
Yep, the US is still the largest domestic producer of counterfeit American money...to the tune of about 1.3 Trillion per year
Good one, PheaNiques. Most readers wouldn't have noticed that the Secret Service has named Peru the largest foreign producer of American counterfeit money.
They also just got promoted to being the top cocaine producer in the world.
Fake dollar bills.lol OH my LANTA!! der ta der.duh.
Everybody loves to pull money out of thin air, but only the Fed can do it with total impunity.
Did you know that, the US is making money on borrowing money. The interest rate on T-bills is lower than the inflation rate.
Also, a third of government debt is actually purchased by the Fed. So a lot of the Federal debt is just loaning money to ourselves.
Cut the jokes...Fake dollars are at least as dangerous as the Fed. If we we get into the 21st cent. and follw the lead of other countries we could stop this in an instant. Try faking an Australian dollar. Note - they are a goofy plastic.
From the Wiki: In 1988 The Reserve Bank of Australia released the world's first long lasting and counterfeit-resistant polymer (plastic) banknotes with a special Bicentennial $10 note issue. After problems with this bill were discovered and addressed, in 1992 a problem-free $5 note was issued. In 1996 Australia became the first country to have a full series of circulating polymer banknotes.[12] On 3 May 1999 the New Zealand Reserve Bank started circulating polymer banknotes printed by Note Printing Australia Limited.[13] The technology developed is now used in 26 countries.[14] Note Printing Australia is currently printing polymer notes for 18 countries
Canada's plastic bills are melting.
In your own pasting there, did you not notice it said FOREIGN producer of counterfeit money? U.S. would be domestic, not foreign. Right?
Obando isn`t he in the white house?
I do so dislike to hijack a thread, but your point is stupid and juvenile. Meanwhile, something of relevance:
"It's a form of economic terrorism," Really? Terrorism? This term is getting used too much. Were the Peruvians really planning on causing mass hysteria and chaos in the streets with counterfeit money? Please, lets give that word a rest and use it for things that are relevant.
Good point Muddlrefly. On another 'related' topic, aren't you stil waiting to receive your certificate of attendance from your local high school yet? No... Well keep trying. I bet you can purchase your degree before you could stay on topic.
I'll let the thread votes speak for themselves.
If the economy keeps going "Forward" on its present course, the Peruvian counterfeit money might be worth more than the stuff the Mint is printing.
Hell if you can't steal it off Wall street you might as will pprint it...IT's all stealing.
Sounds like Peru is the back bone of the U.S. economy, from cocaine to cash, so that's where the economic stimulus came from, not the Fed. Reserve.
Form of terrorism? I suppose all our banks were terrorist to. Their probably gonna confiscate and buy some hookers anyway.
Thank you Peru!!!! Good catch. Rather than complain about the Peruvian coca traffickers, we should be thanking their police and government for doing their jobs. They don't get paid hardly anything and they didn't pocket the cash and try to use it, they did their jobs. The glass is half full and it would be nice if others could "try" to be decent and civil once in awhile.
So, Peru provides the $50's, but North Korea is still distributing the 'super' $100's. The State Department even leaked that some of the NK bills even have the yellow stripe already on them (supposedly proving they're real) when they reach this country. The confiscated NK bills are then used to pay Somali pirate ransoms to get them out of this country. These NK bills are so real that they often are indistinguishable from the real ones, saving the fed the trouble of printing more. Hopefully the Peruvian presses were confiscated and destroyed, too.
I could really make it rain with all those fiddies
And the difference between this and our government's excessive printing is ?????