Police Check Counterfeit Money Factory under the guise of a printing house in Sukoharjo, the mode is using a courier to find potential buyers

Photo via Antara.

CENTRAL JAVA - Police uncovered a counterfeit money factory (UPAL) under the guise of a printing house in Larangan Village, Gayam Village, Sukoharjo Regency. From the disclosure, officers arrested five suspects.

Central Java Police Chief Inspector General Pol. Ahmad Luthfi said apart from the suspects, the police also secured evidence in the form of counterfeit notes of IDR 100,000 and IDR 50,000 with a total of IDR 1,260 billion.

Ahmad said the disclosure of this case was based on cooperation between the Sukoharjo Police, Central Java Police, East Java Police, and Lampung Police.

The five arrested suspects are currently being held at the Sukoharjo Police Headquarters. They are Shofi Udin, a resident of Semarang; Rino, a resident of Klaten; screenwriter Sarimin, a resident of Banyumas; printing owner Irvan Mahendra, a resident of Karanganyar; and Jefrie Susanto, a resident of Jakarta.

Based on the Antara report, the disclosure of the circulation of counterfeit money began on October 7, and 26 counterfeit notes were found. After being developed on October 12, the police confiscated IDR 40 million from perpetrator Shofi Udin in Semarang.

Furthermore, on October 17, IDR 385 million was revealed again in Brayat, Klaten Regency with the perpetrator Rino. This case was developed again on October 28, the perpetrators were in Bandung, then three perpetrators became DPOs in West Java.

On October 17, evidence of IDR 31.9 million was found in Sukoharjo, then the evidence and the perpetrators were revealed in Surakarta. This means said the Police Chief, that of these several perpetrators, a joint team from the Sukoharjo Police and the Central Java Police uncovered the production site for counterfeit money in Sukoharjo.

The mode of operation said Ahmad, concerned the first producing counterfeit money, and the second using intermediaries or marketing personnel.

"So, there are those who print counterfeit money and distribute them, then there are also couriers looking for potential buyers, including he spends the money daily", said Inspector General Police Ahmad Lutfi.

The perpetrators also sold IDR 1 million counterfeit money for IDR 300 thousand for real money. The perpetrator's motive is to fulfill daily needs due to economic pressure. In this case, his party secured 11 units of printing machines made in Germany.

The alleged article is Law Number 7 of 2011 concerning Currency.

Everyone who produces, sells, buys, imports, exports, stores, and/or distributes machines, equipment, printing equipment, printing plates, or other tools used or intended to make counterfeit rupiah as referred to in the formulation of Article 27 paragraph (1) Article 26 paragraph (1) Article 37 paragraph (1) and/or Article 36 paragraph (1).