Police Arrest Counterfeit Money Dealers In Trenggalek

TRENGGALEK - Police officers arrested three gangs of counterfeit money dealers. The perpetrator was arrested while staying at a hotel in Trenggalek Regency, East Java.

The three perpetrators with the initials AN (48), JS (47) and SD (49) are now being held in the Trenggalek Police Headquarters detention cell along with 1,259 pieces of fake Rp100 thousand notes.

"AN comes from the province in Sumatra, for JS from Central Java province and elementary school comes from DKI Jakarta province," said Trenggalek Police Chief AKBP Dwiasi Wiyatkputera quoted by Antara, Friday, December 10.

He explained that the police initially arrested two perpetrators with the initials AN and JS, who had just circulated counterfeit money in the Jombang Regency area. The two then moved to Trenggalek, but did not have time to use counterfeit money because they were caught by the police.

"From the hands of the two suspects, we secured 310 pieces of counterfeit notes in the Rp100 thousand denomination. Then we developed and arrested the suspect from an elementary school in Bantul, Yogyakarta Special Region, and found 1,249 pieces of evidence for counterfeit Rp100 thousand notes," continued Dwiasi.

In addition to thousands of counterfeit notes in the Rp100 thousand denomination, officers also confiscated several US dollar bills which were suspected to be counterfeit notes. However, officers are still investigating to ensure its authenticity.

"In addition to securing counterfeit money in the form of rupiah, we also secured several black dollar bills or raw materials for making dollars," he explained.

Dwiasi added, from SD's confession, the counterfeit money was obtained from a person suspected of being a supplier of counterfeit money. The man who is now on the wanted list is from West Java Province.

He confirmed that the three suspects who were arrested were dealers. At this time officers are still investigating the case. The status of the three perpetrators has now been raised to suspect and charged with article 36 paragraph (3) in conjunction with article 26 paragraph (3) sub article 36 paragraph (2) in conjunction with article 26 paragraph (2) of the Law of the Republic of Indonesia number 7 of 2011 concerning currency with a maximum imprisonment of 15 years.

Dwiasi appealed to the public to be aware of the circulation of counterfeit money and immediately report to the officers if they found it.