Two Balinese Citizens From Afar To Surabaya To Exchange Counterfeit Dollars, Finally Arrested By The Police

Surabaya Police officers released 15,000 counterfeit bills of USD 100 denominations, Monday, March 8. (Photo: Didik Suhartono/Antara)

JAKARTA - Police officers from Kota Besar Surabaya have arrested two residents from Bali who exchanged counterfeit US dollars at a local bank.

"They exchanged money which turned out to be fake," said the Head of the Surabaya City Police, Police Grand Commissioner Adjutant (AKBP) Oki Ahadian Purwono in Surabaya, as reported by Antara, Tuesday, March 9.

Two Balinese residents who are currently being detained, respectively, have the initials IWW (42) from Denpasar, and SMJ (56) from Bangli.

From the suspect's hands, the police confiscated 15 thousand pieces of counterfeit USD 100 bills.

"From the results of the examination at the forensic laboratory, the dollars brought by the two perpetrators were fake. The quality is relatively good, but not precise," said the middle-ranking officer.

To the police, the two perpetrators argued that they came all the way from Bali to Surabaya on the orders of a person with the initials AA, who asked for the fake dollars to be exchanged for bonds or certificates containing an agreement between the issuing company as a fund borrower and an investor as a fund provider at the bank.

The IWW perpetrators departed from Bali by land with counterfeit money, while SMJ went to Surabaya using air transportation.

"They then went to a bank in the Tanjung Perak area of Surabaya," said Police Grand Commissioner Adjutant Oki.

The bank staff became suspicious of the money brought by the perpetrator and then contacted the branch office at Pahlawan Surabaya Street to check the large amount of dollar bills.

It was from this investigation that all the dollar bills brought by the two fake perpetrators were discovered, who then contacted the police.

"We are still developing an investigation into whether the two perpetrators were connected to a network of counterfeit bills that were previously exposed or the Banyuwangi Police Office some time ago," he said.