Sleman Man Arrested After Printing Money with a Printer to Buy Cigarettes

A man with the initials JPU (34), a resident of Sleman, resorted to printing and circulating counterfeit money because he was struggling financially. JPU targeted small stalls in the Tempel area of Sleman to distribute his homemade counterfeit notes. Sleman Police Public Relations Head, Iptu Argo Anggoro, revealed that the criminal idea of making counterfeit money had been in JPU’s mind since May 2026. Since then, he ordered an HP brand printer for Rp 2.2 million to carry out his plan. The printer arrived on 4 June 2026, and JPU immediately began experimenting with printing counterfeit notes. “JPU acted alone. He counterfeited, stored, and circulated the money himself, so there is no network,” Argo explained when contacted on Thursday (16/7/2026). “It started with trial and error because his economic needs were not being met, so he tried to find a way out in the wrong way,” he continued. Argo said JPU repeatedly tried to print counterfeit money using blurry paper that was cut and glued together. Initially, he tried printing denominations of Rp 5,000, Rp 50,000, and Rp 100,000. After several attempts and feeling that the counterfeit money was similar enough to the real thing, JPU began circulating it at grocery stalls in the Sleman area. His method was to buy goods such as cigarettes and instant noodles with the counterfeit money and ask for change. “The suspect JPU circulated the money in the Sleman area, especially in Tempel. We have secured around Rp 250,000 that was spent,” Argo stated. “He looked for shops and stalls in remote villages, where the keepers were mostly elderly and lacked the ability to check the money. So he could shop, get the goods, and receive real money as change,” he added. JPU’s actions came to an end on 3 July 2026. On that day, he struck at a stall belonging to a victim with the initials IY (54) in Tempel. JPU bought a pack of 76 kretek cigarettes containing 12 sticks for Rp 18,000 using a counterfeit Rp 50,000 note. He received Rp 32,000 in change from the transaction. Afterwards, JPU sped off on his Honda Beat to find other grocery stalls. The victim, IY, was initially unsuspecting, but after examining the money again, he became suspicious and reported it to the Tempel Police. “He felt the money, held it up to the light, and was convinced it was fake. He then filed a report with us. We confirmed it and had it checked at the bank. It turned out the money was indeed counterfeit. We then launched an investigation,” Argo said. JPU was successfully apprehended by the Tempel Police Criminal Investigation Unit on 6 July 2026 at his home in the Ngaglik area, Sleman. He is currently detained at the Tempel Police detention centre. “In total, we seized 202 sheets. There are 153 sheets of Rp 50,000 notes and 49 sheets of Rp 100,000 notes. Because this is not real money, we refer to them as sheets, not by nominal value, as they are no longer valuable items,” he explained. JPU is charged under Article 36 paragraphs 1, 2, and 3 of Law Number 7 of 2011 concerning currency, in conjunction with Article 374 of Law Number 1 of 2023 concerning the Criminal Code, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 15 years.