Counterfeit scheme involves real bills

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — Counterfeit $100 bills that are nearly perfect have been circulating in the Grant’s area since Dec. 22, Grants Police Detective Sgt. John Castaneda said.

Two suspects allegedly involved in the scam have been arrested, while a third, considered the leader of the ring, is still at large.

Those in custody, Kayla Garcia and Julia Romero, have not been able to provide much usable information to police, Castaneda said.

The suspect police are seeking is Johnathan Grove, 26, who was arrested and convicted of counterfeiting in California and is now in Grants, Castaneda said.

“All Ms. Garcia would tell us is Mr. Grove would give them the $100 bills after he washed them,” he said.

U.S. Secret Service Resident Agent in Charge of the Secret Service Office in Albuquerque Richard Ferretti, said it is apparent the suspect is bleaching off the picture and the number “5” on each $5 bill and replacing them with the number 100 and the $100 bill’s picture.

Merchants who have employees mark the bills with a marking pen will lose money on the transaction, Castaneda said.

“Mr. Grove is using a real $5 bill and changing it into a $100. So the marking pen shows that it is good because it is a good bill, but of course, it is not a $100 bill, it is a $5 bill,” Castaneda said.

How to tell a counterfeit $100 bill

“The only difference we (Grants Police) can see is that the ink smears off,” he said.

The ink is smearing off because Grove is using a desktop publishing printer with inexpensive toner, rather than ink from the Intaglio printing process the bills undergo at federal printing plants, Ferretti said.

There are two additional ways proper or counterfeit $5 and $100 bills may be detected, Ferretti said.

“There is multicolor ink, blue to black, on the bottom right of the $5 bill that cannot be changed,” he said. “When bleaching, all of that comes out.

“The fibers (embedded) in the paper are different between the $5 bill and the $100 bill and that is another easy way to detect counterfeit bills.

“If you hold up a $5 bill to ultraviolet light, the fibers are blue,” he said. “If you hold up the $100 bill to an ultraviolet light, the fibers are pink or red.”

Ferretti said he thinks every merchant should invest in a (portable) ultraviolet light source (for their cashiers).

“The most common counterfeited bill is the $20,” he said
“We track every counterfeit bill that is passed in the world.

They are all in our (Secret Service) database. They are in our computer system so we can talk to any police department in the world,” he said.

Contact: Grants Police,
(5056) 287-2984; CrimeStoppers, (505) 287-8400.