Police confiscate more fake American dollar

Police confiscate more fake American dollar

JAKARTA (JP): City police detectives arrested four men at two
separate locations on Thursday for possession of counterfeit
American dollars totaling $15,000, a police source said.

According to the officer, who requested anonymity, the arrests
were to be announced at a media conference, but the conference
was canceled because police were still searching for the main
suspect in the case.

The source said the arrests were made following a tip-off the
police received a few days earlier about a planned transaction of
counterfeit banknotes on Thursday near the Depok bus terminal,
south of here.

"During the raid at the terminal, the police caught two men
who were exchanging $300 in fake banknotes for Rp 1 million
($135)," he said.

Based on information received from the two suspects, police
raided a house in Kalibata, South Jakarta, and discovered a
bundle of counterfeit U.S. dollars worth US$14,700, he said.

All of the counterfeit money was in the form of $100
banknotes.

"So far, the leads to the main suspect have been cut off," the
officer said.

Last week, police officers and customs officials in the
capital and the nearby town of Bogor confiscated counterfeit
rupiah and dollar banknotes totaling Rp 5 billion and $16,000 in
several raids.

Bank Indonesia said on Wednesday the amount of counterfeit
rupiah banknotes in circulation over the past three years was
relatively small compared to the total number of counterfeit
bills seized by the police.

The central bank's director for banknote supervision, H.Y.
Susmanto, said the counterfeit rupiah notes in circulation last
year reached Rp 6.17 billion, equivalent to about 0.01 percent of
the total Rp 50.4 trillion of banknotes in circulation.

But he said the bank did not have any information for the
first three months of 2000.

"We don't have the figures for the early part of this year
yet. But I think the ratio is small," he said at a media
conference.

Separately, South Jakarta Police are still searching for three
suspects connected with last week's arrest of six men in
possession of counterfeit Rp 50,000 and Rp 20,000 banknotes,
totaling some Rp 3 billion. The three were identified as Shyam
Indriyadi, Bambang and Setiyo.

During the operation, police also found a printing machine,
paper and several other items used to counterfeit banknotes,
including a dryer, paints and printing slides, at the house of
arrested suspect Heri Chaeruddin in Ciomas, Bogor.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Heri said that on Dec. 15
last year, Shyam gave him a printing machine and asked him to
print fake Rp 50,000 rupiah notes totaling Rp 350 million.

He quoted Shyam as saying the order came from a bank in the
capital.

Shyam said the counterfeit notes had to be authentic enough to
pass inspection by ultraviolet lamps, Heri said

After receiving this order, Heri said he contacted Bambang for
assistance. He said Bambang provided him with paper which was
used to print official documents.

Heri said he was ready to put the finishing touches on the Rp
3 billion worth of counterfeit banknotes, such as adding the
serial numbers, embossing the holograms and adding the official
ribbons, when he was arrested on Thursday last week by South
Jakarta's Jagakarsa Police.

A former employee of the Bogor administration, Heri said he
had been obsessed with producing perfect counterfeit banknotes
since learning last year about the alleged circulation of rupiah
banknotes which were authentic in every detail, except they used
serial numbers which had already been used.

He said he was told that unknown parties had produced billions
of rupiah of the so-called uang ganda, allegedly for the benefit
of a politician.

"Rp 1 million of real money could be exchanged for Rp 1.5
million (of these notes)," Heri said.

He then searched several areas in Central Java, including
Kudus, Surakarta and Yogyakarta, to find the parties which had
produced the illegal notes.

"But I could not find them. I was so frustrated that finally I
learned the art of perfectly making counterfeit money," Heri
said.

The suspect, who was previously arrested but later released by
Bogor Police for the same crime, claimed to have handed over Rp
900,000 of real money to a Bogor Police sergeant.

"It was a gift to him, but suddenly I was released; it was not
my decision," Heri said.

The Bogor City Police chief of detectives recently was
relieved of his duties for releasing Heri. (ylt)