Peru, says the U.S. Secret Service, is the world’s number one producer of counterfeit American currency. Since 2012, in cooperation with the Peruvian National Police, millions of counterfeit notes have been seized, with many arrests made.

Another step forward was taken on July 20, the Secret Service said in a July 27 statement, when the PNP, with the assistance of 360 of its officers, 28 prosecutors and the Secret Service, successfully executed 18 search warrants at private residences in Lima, Peru.

Inside Coin World: New token column makes its debut A new regular column makes its first appearance in the Aug. 27 issue of Coin World, “Tokens to Collect,” and John Kraljevich Jr. visits Colonial era checks.

The warrants resulted in the discovery of an offset printing press, paper and miscellaneous counterfeit paraphernalia; $7,200,000 in counterfeit $100 Federal Reserve notes; and counterfeit Peruvian notes mimicking 12,000,000 soles (at face value worth $3.75 million in U.S. funds).

Eleven alleged members of the “Coyotes del Pacifico” (the Pacific Coyotes), a criminal organization operating in six countries, were arrested and will be charged under Peruvian law. 

The Secret Service revealed that the case began in July 2017, when the PNP’s anti-counterfeit group, working closely with the Secret Service office in Lima, initiated a criminal investigation into the manufacturing and distribution of counterfeit U.S. currency.

Through the use of undercover consensual calls, wire intercepts, extensive surveillance, purchases of counterfeit currency, and information gleaned from criminal informants, they uncovered what is being called one of the largest counterfeit currency manufacturing and distribution networks in the city. 

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