$3M in phony bills seized, 9 charged

CAL MILLAR
STAFF REPORTER

Police have arrested nine alleged members of a counterfeiting ring and seized more than $3 million in phony $10 and $20 bills.

Many of the counterfeit bills are still in circulation and police believe other members of the gang may try to pass more phony cash over the weekend, said Staff Inspector Tony Crawford, head of the Toronto police fraud squad.

The suspects face fraud charges in connection with the production and distribution of counterfeit money. At least 11 others are being sought.

The arrests and seizure of the fake bills came in a series of simultaneous raids yesterday afternoon across the Greater Toronto Area.

Crawford said police also took down a plant capable of producing "unlimited quantities" of phony Canadian bills and currency from other countries.

Officers from Toronto's fraud squad, the cargo unit, the intelligence squad, Ontario Provincial Police, Peel police and the United States Secret Service were involved in the investigation.

Crawford said that since investigators were continuing to execute search warrants at the time of the news conference, he was unable to give the location of the printing plant. He was also unable to release names of those arrested.

Some $250,000 to $300,000 worth of the currency was put on display by police during the news conference.

"These are the best of a group of counterfeit twenties that we have seen anywhere in the Toronto area," Crawford said, describing the counterfeiting operation as "extremely sophisticated." Manuel Parreira, a senior analyst with the Bank of Canada who also attended the news conference, said the counterfeit bills can easily be detected by examining the gold patch.

"Pretty much every counterfeit out there, if it has a patch on it ... it's going to be gold only," he said.

Parreira said a legal note, when tilted — whether it's a twenty, a fifty or a hundred — will show a foil patch flashing both green and gold