Cirebon Police Seized Fake Money of Nearly Rp12 Billion Ahead of Eid

Cirebon - The Cirebon City Police (Polresta) ahead of Lebaran 2026 dismantled a case of money forgery by confiscating evidence worth around Rp. 12 billion in Cirebon Regency, West Java.

Cirebon Police Chief Kombes Imara Utama said the disclosure of the case began with a report from the community regarding the alleged activity of producing counterfeit money in Gegesik District.

"From public information, we conducted an investigation until we finally managed to uncover and arrest the suspect while producing counterfeit money," he said, quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, March 17.

He said the suspect with the initials S (52), a resident of Gegesik District, Cirebon Regency, was arrested on Saturday (14/3) at around 16.30 WIB at his house.

"During the arrest, the suspect was caught in the act of producing counterfeit money in the amount of Rp100,000 using a number of equipment that had been prepared," he said.

"The suspect redesigned the Rp100,000 bill, then printed and cut it to resemble the original money to be distributed," he said.

He said that the counterfeit money was planned to be distributed in a number of areas in West Java to outside areas such as Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, and Yogyakarta.

"The circulation is planned before the celebration of Nyepi and Eid al-Fitr this year," he said.

In the disclosure, the police confiscated 607 counterfeit money pieces of Rp100,000 worth Rp60.7 million and 100 pieces of printed results that had not been cut worth Rp400 million.

In addition, he said that 52 paper rims were also found, which were estimated to be able to produce fake money worth Rp10.5 billion as well as counterfeit money printing sheets that had just been printed on the side worth Rp1.5 billion.

The police also secured a number of equipment, including printers, hologram machines, laptops, and money counting machines used to produce counterfeit money.

"The total potential for counterfeit money from the evidence seized is estimated to reach IDR 12 billion," he said.

His party emphasized that in this case, the suspect was charged with Law Number 7 of 2011 concerning Currency and provisions in the Criminal Code with a maximum prison sentence of 20 years or life imprisonment.