Authorities found a total of 1,123,600 in counterfeit dollars in 50 and 20 dollar bills.
They also seized printers, special inks, printing plates and imitation paper.
The United States embassy together with Colombian authorities confiscated more than one million counterfeit dollars on December 12 in a home in Boyacá, one of the thirty-two territorial departments of the country. The announcement was published this December 19 by the US embassy in Colombia.
This seizure was accompanied by dismantling of a coin counterfeiting operation.
The Technical Investigation Corps (CTI) of the Attorney General’s Office successfully carried out the raid, with the support of the United States, the National Police and the Military Gaula of the Colombian National Army. During the operation, the authorities found a total of 1,123,600 in counterfeit dollars in 50 and 20 dollar bills with an estimated value of more than 4,272 million Colombian pesos that were going to be placed on the illegal market.
US Embassy in Colombia.
The US agency clarifies that in addition to the bundles of banknotes, “high-tech machinery used for their production was seized, including printers, special inks, printing plates and paper designed to imitate real currency.”
During the raid and dismantling, the Colombian national police captured a person “in flagrante delicto” operating the production center of bills.
“This operation represents a blow to the counterfeit money supply chain that negatively affects financial stability not only nationally, but also internationally, since much of this counterfeit currency ends up abroad,” said a source consulted by the US embassy.
In some countries, counterfeiting money is a crime punishable by imprisonment of eight to twelve years and fines corresponding to a proportion of the value of the currency. Through these penalties, governments claim to be the only issuers of legalized money; right or wrong, this results in the monopoly of money.
Bitcoin, the most real alternative to fiat money, solves in its protocol the problems of money counterfeiting and centralized issuance, as reported by CriptoNoticias.