The Federal Police reported this Thursday (14) that they arrested two Cameroonians with approximately R$448,000 in counterfeit hundred-real bills. The act took place on Tuesday (12), in a hotel in São Luís, Maranhão.
According to the PF, the men are between 30 and 40 years old. In the room, in addition to the suitcase with the counterfeit bills, cell phones, chemicals and 12,180 kilos of blank paper with the measurements of banknotes ready for counterfeiting were seized.
The PF says that it reached the suspects after a complaint that foreigners who traveled from São Paulo to São Luís intended to sell the fake notes and get new members to participate in the criminal scheme.
The action also relied on intelligence information from the police, which followed the men’s movement through the city until they were arrested in the act.
For PF delegate Natan Vasconcelos, what caught the attention of the police “was the seizure of such a large amount of counterfeit money, which is not common”.
The volume would indicate that it is an articulated gang, supported by laboratories that produce in large quantities. According to Vasconcelos, due to the quality of the fake banknotes that are mixed with real banknotes, it is easy to deceive an ordinary person.
In the last 20 months, the PF dismantled 24 counterfeit coin laboratories operating in Brazil. Eight of them made a near-perfect forgery, according to experts involved in the operations.
Source: CNN Brasil
