-Caveat Lector-
Colombia dollar factory busted
Counterfeiters cranked out millions in phony bills
Gen. Alfonso Arellano of the Colombian National Police, examines counterfeit
U.S. dollars near the town of Versalles on Thursday.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
VERSALLES, Colombia, Nov. 18 - Its entrance hidden in a thick grove of
banana trees, criminals in an underground room cranked out millions of
counterfeit U.S. dollars - possibly more than $1 billion - before police
working with the U.S. Secret Service cracked the biggest-ever counterfeiting
operation in Colombia.
DISPLAYING INGENUITY and daring, the counterfeiters dug out the room in
a mountainside of the verdant Andes of western Colombia, lined its walls
with cinderblock and brought in fluorescent lighting and a printing press.
It all ended Thursday with a bust that highlights a problem in a country
better known for drug trafficking. According to the U.S. Embassy, one-third
of counterfeit money circulating in the United States is made in Colombia.
Some $22 million in Colombian-made counterfeit dollars have been seized in
the United States since 1985.
"This, unfortunately, is a national talent, because these are
self-trained counterfeiters who produce (money) with a great degree of
perfection," national police Gen. Alfonso Arellano said.
Anyone passing within a few feet of the banana trees in the isolated
farming and coffee-growing region would have no way of knowing that a
multimillion-dollar cottage industry - and a subterranean one at that - was
in operation.
Journalists flown to the site aboard police helicopters late
Thursday, within hours of the room's discovery, saw $3 million in bogus
bills lying in stacks on tables and hanging by clips from string stretched
across the 15-by-20-foot room. Cans of ink and dye stood on shelves mounted
on the walls. Metal plates from which the bills were imprinted were
scattered on tables.
. Watch a selection of NBC News reports on the U.S. war against
Colombia's drug cartels.
A policeman turned on the black printing press, which clanked into
life and began spitting out sheets of $100 bills. A portable fan provided
ventilation for the humid room.
"Everything you need to make dollars is here," said Arellano, the
police general. "And this room, which is like a bunker, was built with
sophisticated engineering techniques."
A task force of 100 Colombian police, assisted by U.S. Secret Service
agents, spent a year and a half trying to find the moneymaking factory and
finally discovered it after infiltrating undercover officers into the
counterfeiting gang, Arellano said Friday.
When heavily armed police swooped in on Thursday, they found one man,
Gerardo Ardila, in the underground room and arrested him, Arellano said.
Ardila was believed to be a lower-level worker.
Authorities were searching for the alleged mastermind, Ramiro
Sepulveda, a previously convicted Colombian counterfeiter. U.S. Secret
Service agents have been tracking him for 20 years.
Sepulveda got out of jail six months ago, following a 1998 arrest for
counterfeiting U.S., Spanish and Tahitian currency, a Secret Service agent
said on condition of anonymity. He said Sepulveda was considered "a
craftsman" and one of Colombia's top currency counterfeiters.
The Secret Service traced phony bills circulating in the United
States back to the Colombian operation, the agent said.
The underground operation was capable of printing $3 million per week
and had probably been doing so for about 10 years - producing more than 1
billion bogus dollars, Arellano said. The Secret Service agent said the
dollar factory appears to have been operating for at least two years.
The bills, in denominations of 100s, 50s and 20s, look genuine at
first glance. But anyone familiar with U.S. currency can see on closer
inspection that something is wrong. The texture of the paper doesn't feel
right - it's slightly glossy - and the printing looks fake.
Police said much of the bogus money was probably destined for
neighboring Ecuador, which officially switched to the dollar in September as
the country's official currency. Ecuadorean officials had predicted
counterfeit dollars from Colombia would flood Ecuador because many locals
would not be able to recognize fake bills.
� 2000 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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