Feds Bust Up Major Counterfeiting Ring

MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal authorities have indicted 87 Asian nationals on charges of smuggling counterfeit money, drugs and cigarettes into the United States, law enforcement officials said Monday.

The charges resulted from an undercover investigation that led to the seizure of cargo containers filled with contraband in ports in Los Angeles and Newark, N.J., officials said. Authorities seized $3.3 million in counterfeit U.S. currency, officials said.

Federal agents arrested 50 to 60 people over the weekend in Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Atlantic City, N.J., where some of those charged were lured by FBI agents, the officials said.

The indictments also allege a conspiracy to import weapons, but no weapons were found in the cargo containers, officials said.

These officials only on grounds of anonymity, they said, because they were not authorized to talk publicly about the matter. Senior officials were planning to announce the arrests later Monday at the Justice Department.

The investigation began in the FBI's Atlantic City office and included the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Other agencies involved are the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Secret Service and New Jersey state police.

You have to squint really hard to see that they are counterfeit.

Quoted: 87? w00t!!!

Where is markm when you need him?

Asian nationals? WTF, Asia is a continent, not a nation. that's got to be one of the sloppiest pieces of journalism I've seen since last week.

Quoted: Feds Bust Up Major Counterfeiting Ring MARK SHERMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal authorities have indicted 87 Asian nationals

  WTF is an 'asian national'?  Is 'asia' a nation?  Why can't the stupid leftist media just plain tell us where these people are from?

In China, counterfeiting the Yuan is a sure death sentence.  No wonder they want to make ersatz greenbacks instead.

Quoted: 87? w00t!!!

87 Asians!  w00t!

Quoted: Quoted: 87? w00t!!! 87 Asians!  w00t!

They should have added one more to their group which would have made much luckier and they probably wouldn't have been caught.

I just heard this story on the radio.  The fake bills were made in North Korea.  Suppose that nutjob gov't is trying to destabilize ours, or just make some cash?

fluctuations