Man with fake money arrested

TANGERANG: Tangerang Police arrested a man for allegedly distributing counterfeit banknotes in US dollar currency. The man was arrested at his house in Caringin village, Cisoka district, Tangerang regency, on Sunday evening.

The suspect, Sahlan, 40, claimed that the 84 counterfeit US$100 banknotes did not belong to him.

"The fake money belongs to a guest who visited me last Thursday," he told police investigators.

Sahlan said that a man, whom he claimed he had never met before, visited him on Thursday searching for ruby gemstones. Since the guest did not bring cash, he told Sahlan that he would leave his bag at the house and return to Kalimantan to take some money.

"Since the guest did not return by Sunday, I opened his bag and found 84 $100 banknotes and five Brazilian real banknotes," he said.

Tangerang Police deputy chief of detectives Insp. Kustanto said on Monday that the police received a tipoff that the suspect has frequently distributed counterfeit money.

"We sent a plainclothes detective to the suspect's house and the detective pretended that he could double his money. The suspect then agreed to doubling the fake dollar banknotes and would have paid Rp 50,000 for the service for each banknote," he said.

Sahlan is currently in detention at Tangerang police station. -- JP