Police in Thailand arrested two Thai men with counterfeit $100 US bills worth US$500,000. They suspect the counterfeiting might have been done on a printing press that went missing last year after a counterfeiting bust.
On Friday, police arrested two suspects, identified only as Mr. Asmin and Mr. Abdulraman, at the Siam Exchange on Phaya Thai Road in Bangkok.
The two men, aged 48 and 45, had a total of five thousand fake US$100 banknotes, which would be worth US$500,000 had they not been counterfeit.
The suspects had taken the counterfeit bank notes to the exchange and initially attempted to convert only five US$100 bills. Authorities were alerted when staff detected fake money using a banknote scanner.
The Siam Exchange staff noticed a strange texture when they touched the bills, so they decided to test them.
When police questioned Asmin and Abulraman, they told them that they had obtained the fake US$100 bills through a rubber sale in their home province. Nevertheless, investigators were skeptical, suspecting they had been hired.
Police charged them with counterfeiting and using fake foreign currency after taking the bills to the Pathum Wan police station.
US Embassy in Bangkok believes the bills were produced by a printing press that disappeared following an arrest of counterfeiters in Nakhon Pathom province last year.
Investigations are continuing with the assistance of the US Secret Service