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| Sunday, 5 February 2006 |
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Foreigners nabbed with fake dollar notes Crime Sunday by Jayampathy Jayasinghe It was a routine job for Sub Inspector Silva to scrutinise the pile of reports that were on his desk. Some reports had red tags with words "Urgent" marked on them while bulk of the repots had the words FFR (For Further Report) on them. The paper that caught his eye was about someone giving a tip off on fake US Dollar Bills. It was a valuable piece of information especially to those in the Forged Currency Unit of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). Someone was churning out fake US dollar bills by the millions at a secluded luxury house off Dehiwela. The informant had even mentioned the number and the address of the house where the secret operation was going on. African nationals The operation was masterminded by two African nationals who had arrived in Sri Lanka to work for a tsunami related project. But they were also engaged in printing fake dollar bills during their spare time to supplement their income. The men who were involved in the racket had a penchant for secrecy. Although the shady operation was carried out in utmost secrecy, there was widespread speculation among neighbours that something sinister was happening in the house. With this piece of information, Sub- Inspector Silva rushed to his superior's room and explained to him about the contents of the report. They discussed at length, the strategy involved in keeping the house under surveillance to gather more evidence. Operation begins Soon they evolved a plan. They decided to post several plainclothed men to hang around the suspected house without being noticed by the neighbours. It was a gruelling task. A surveillance around the clock to keep a tab on the movements of the suspects. Inspector Silva's plan soon found traction with his superior. The sleuths were to gather more intelligence on the secret operation. In the meantime several plain clothesmen took up position in the vicinity of the house and mounted a surveillance operation which lasted for about a week. It was a luxury apartment with a high wall built around it. The sleuths noticed that no body could gain access to the house unless from the main entrance which was always locked up. The sleuths were able to observe two african nationals who lived there and a few natives occasionally visiting the house. Tip off Meanwhile the CID Head office was tipped off that a foreign national residing at Dehiwela had requested a computer company to repair a defective lap-top and the laser printer at their home. The man had even inquired whether they could install a new sophisticated computer for printing purposes. The moment the CID officers got wind of it, they informed the company that two policemen in mufti posing off as repair men will accompany them to the house. The idea was to observe what was going on in the house. The also told the repair men to partly repair the machine so that they would be re- summoned in the event of a break down. The idea was to arrest the occupants if they had found any incriminating evidence on their first visit. While the house was being watched, the sleuths observed that the main door was always locked up. Therefore it wasn't possible for an unknown person to enter the house. In fact the occupants hadn't opened the door for strangers. When the sleuths arrived at the house with the repair men, they were ushered into the house by an African national. They were led into a room where the Lap-Top and the Laser printer were kept. While the repairmen were attending to the computer, the sleuths noticed some discarded paper lying on the ground. They were prints of US dollar bills. By now the policemen were convinced that the two foreigners were engaged in printing forged US Dollar bills. However they did not rush into conclusion by arresting the two foreigners. Instead they returned to their office hoping to get back when the repair men were summoned again. The arrest Last week 16 disguised policemen returned to the house with the repairmen on the pretext of repairing the defective computer. When they arrived at the house several policemen took positions around the high wall while a few of them went into the house. The sleuths then declared their identity to the foreigners and began a search. Before long they found a waddle of fake dollar notes in 100 denominations. By now the policemen were fully convinced that they have a air tight case with the recovery of fakes. The charge was later explained to the Ugandan and Congolese national and taken into custody along with the Laser printer and the Lap-Top. Meanwhile, the CID headquarters have flashed a message to the United
States Secret Service, The Interpol Headquarters in Lyon and Central Bank of
Sri Lanka about the fake dollar operation. |
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