Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Press Used To Print Millions of US Banknotes Seized In Quebec

Posted by samzenpus on from the close-to-perfect dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Canadian Royal Mounted Police report: An offset printing press used to manufacture counterfeit $20 banknotes was seized by the RCMP and US Secret Service. This significant seizure was made earlier today in the Trois-Rivières area. The authorities had been looking for this offset press for several years. A large quantity of paper was also seized by police, that could have been used by the counterfeiters to manufacture from $40-$200 million. The very high quality counterfeit notes were virtually undetectable to the naked eye. Some of the features they had were uncommon, including the type of paper used, which was especially made with a Jackson watermark and a dark vertical stripe imitating the security thread found in authentic notes."

8 of 398 comments (clear)

  1. How they were detected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    They were printed in both English and French, to avoid breaking Canadian bilingualism laws.

    1. Re:How they were detected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      The "In God We Trust, eh?" was another tip-off.

    2. Re:How they were detected by Thomas+Miconi · · Score: 5, Funny

      They were printed in both English and French, to avoid breaking Canadian bilingualism laws.

      Actually, they weren't. Which is the *real* reason why the Quebec police busted them.

    3. Re:How they were detected by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Big bad counterfeiters! 200 Mil!

      I guess they're right. The best way to illegally make money is to own a bank.

      HSBC alone, payed out 2 BILLION in just fines, for laundering drug cartel money. And were glad to do it! 2 Bil was only 5 weeks of it's annual profits. Heck, the man responsible at HSBC, Gulliver, got a personal windfall 2 Million in BONUS!

      So, if there are "BIG PENALTIES" for these Canadian operators, it's only to keep the ankle-biters off of the big banks' turf.

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
  2. Go after the real thieves lol by oic0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now if we could just stop our government from printing themselves money.

    1. Re:Go after the real thieves lol by SeaFox · · Score: 5, Informative

      It steals nothing. My $100 in the bank is worth $105 after the fed increases the money supply 5%. My house goes from $200,000 to 210,000, again, matching the inflation.

      What? Inflation makes your buying power less not more. The house may go up in (numeric) value, but you $100 in the bank is worth less now since it's not worth as much in actual exchange for goods and services.

  3. plastics the new paper by the+0x · · Score: 5, Interesting

    switch to australian made notes, i'd like to see them try and replicate those notes!

  4. Re:Are they embossed? by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Fancy heavy-weight offset printer, so yes. The press is what enables that difference, and this is one of those presses. Who gets to even buy these presses if quite tightly controlled. The fact that authorities spent years looking for it meant that its purchase was very carefully done and it was probably disassembled and moved after initial delivery. A difficult and expensive operation, but presumably the years it was in operation paid for it.