Bilateral Cooperation Nets $1,140,000 in False Currency
Mexico City, December 12, 2007 - "I heartily congratulate the Mexican law enforcement community, including the Procuraduria General de la Republica (Attorney General's Office, PGR), the Secretariat of Public Security (SSP), and other agencies for their effective actions against counterfeiters. On December 10, in the culmination of a two-year investigation, Mexican authorities recovered over one million dollars in counterfeit U.S. $100 dollar bills in the raid of an illegal printing press near Guadalajara, Jalisco. The dedicated, coordinated cooperation between Mexican and U.S. law enforcement authorities struck another serious blow against a criminal counterfeiting ring that has passed millions of dollars in fake U.S. currency since at least 2004.
"This action is the result of a joint investigation between the United States Secret Service, the SSP and the PGR which began in 2005 with information that counterfeit $100 dollar bills being passed in the United State originated in Guadalajara. Since that time, law enforcement operations on both sides of the border resulted in multiple arrests and the recovery of nearly two million dollars of counterfeit currency, mostly in southern California. Yet the flow of fake money continued.
"The SSP apprehended a subject last week carrying $17,800 false dollars, leading to the execution of search warrants and discovery of this counterfeiting operation in Jalisco. This action followed a joint operation in May of this year in which several leaders of this criminal organization were arrested in the U.S. and in Mexico. I applaud the ongoing cooperation between U.S. and Mexican law enforcement and banking authorities, and am confident that it will lead to further arrests and ultimately disband this and other international counterfeiting rings."