Police tally counterfeiters, refute link with general election campaign

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta Police detectives chief Sr. Comr. Mathius Salempang revealed on Friday that the police have arrested eight suspected minor players in counterfeit money syndicates since early this year.

The police seized from the suspects counterfeit Rp 50,000 and Rp 100,000 banknotes worth Rp 60.25 million (US$7,088) as evidence.

"We have successfully apprehended the counterfeit money circulators," he said. "However, we are still tracking down counterfeit money syndicates, particularly their leaders."

Bank Indonesia reported on Thursday a jump in the circulation of counterfeit banknotes in January and February this year.

A central bank report shows that fake money circulating in Jakarta reached Rp 221.8 million in January and Rp 317 million in February. The figure is a sharp increase compared to last year's Rp 82.7 million in January and Rp 61 million in February.

The media have reported allegations that some political parties had been using counterfeit banknotes to attract supporters.

However, the allegations were dismissed by Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Makbul Padmanagara, saying that the counterfeit money syndicates had nothing to do with general elections. They were in the business long before the legislative election campaign, which kicked off on March 11, he argued.

Salempang said that police officers had arrested two men recently in different operations after they used the counterfeit notes to pay for some items worth Rp 850,000 in Tangerang and Rp 1.4 million in West Jakarta.

Earlier in January, the police arrested two suspects in East Jakarta for allegedly possessing counterfeit money worth Rp 40 million by deploying plainclothes officers, posing as potential buyers.

In the same month, police also apprehended four suspects in Bekasi and seized Rp 18 million from them in counterfeit Rp 50,000 banknotes.