PERU – WORLD LEADER IN US DOLLAR COUNTERFEITS

First Peruvian dollar fakes were discovered in the USA in 2003, with a number of detected counterfeit dollar notes growing exponentially. Today Peru is the number one producer of counterfeit US dollars in the world.

According to the US Secret Service, more than 16 million counterfeit dollars, withdrawn from circulation in the USA, were of Peruvian origin. Moreover, millions of fake euros and soles have also been seized by police in Peru.

Counterfeiters produce $100 fake notes manually, reaching a high level of similarity to genuine notes in terms of organoleptic parameters, imitating banknote security features of a rather good quality. Thus, this country gained a reputation of a global leader in US fake notes smuggling, with counterfeits production costs being cheaper than drugs. One $100 fake note may be sold for 20 – 25 dollars on the black market.

In 2009 a regional US Secret Service Center was opened in Lima to provide assistance to Peruvian authorities in the fight against counterfeiting. Since then, 76 million fake US dollar notes were detected for now.

To find more information on anti-counterfeiting operation, which resulted in the seizure of gang members and high technologies to produce imitations, follow next BoW issues.

Based on VICE NEWS

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