Counterfeit Ring Busted by Police
Group also linked to bank robberies. Debit, credit card numbers found.
By: Bob Mitchell, Globe & Mail

At least 30 people have been arrested in the Peel-led dismantling of a major counterfeit money-making ring that laundered millions of dollars of cash through popular consumer retail chains throughout Ontario and in Montreal .

More than $4.5 million in counterfeit currency — about half the phony money that has been turned over to the RCMP at the Bureau of Counterfeits in Ottawa from across Canada in the past 10 to 12 months — has been directly linked to the organization, whose members are also alleged to be responsible for a series of violent bank robberies as well as the illegal manufacturing of credit cards and the theft of credit card data.

"Had this group not been stopped they would have had a significant effect on the Canadian economy," said Sgt. Moshe Gordon, a counterfeit co-ordinator for the RCMP.

Project "More Money" is continuing and more than $2.4 million in counterfeit currency of the total recovered so far has been directly linked to a single counterfeit money manufacturing plant in an industrial unit in Mississauga where police found a Heidelberg printing press that had been adapted to produce nearly perfect foil strips found on all Canadian bills.

As well, more than 10,000 debit and credit card numbers were discovered inside the hard drives of seized computers — data that had been allegedly stolen from unsuspecting consumers since early 2005.

One of the accused was also charged with attempted murder in an unrelated case involving a stabbing in 2004 at the Bramalea City Centre, police said.

The operation was discovered after a special task force headed by Peel Det.-Sgt. Steve Patterson was created to probe two violent armed bank robberies last year in Brampton where customers and tellers were threatened and ordered to the floor.

The initial bank robbery investigations led police to identify as many as six bandits, who are now alleged to have been involved in robbing several banks in Peel and Toronto .

"As a result of investigating individuals in connection with the bank robberies we uncovered others who were allegedly passing large amounts of counterfeit currency," Patterson said yesterday at a news conference at Peel Police headquarters.

Altogether, 469 charges have been laid so far in the investigation conducted by Peel's robbery task force and fraud bureau organized crime team. At least 50 people were identified as being connected to the ring although not all of them have been charged, police said.

Main players charged in connection with the bank robberies include Gregory Bernard, 23, of Ajax, who was charged with 115 offences, including attempted murder, and numerous robbery and firearms offences; Andre Reid, 23, of Toronto, who was charged with 112 offences; Philip Reid, 20, of no fixed address, who was charged with 26 offences and Hydrick Fray-Griffith, 19, of Toronto, who was charged with 34 offences.

Among the other 26 charged with numerous offences were seven young offenders whose identities are protected by the Youth Criminal Justice Act