Mozambican held over forged currency notes

by Jayampathy Jayasinghe

Police have cautioned business establishments when dealing with foreign nationals who try to encash forged currency notes.

A Mozambican national was taken in for questioning by sleuths of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) a few days ago when he attempted to encash forged currency notes at a business establishment in Bambalapitiya. Sleuths promptly rushed to the establishment and arrested the suspect following a complaint from an officer about the suspicious currency notes, Police Media Spokesman SSP Prishantha Jayakody told the Sunday Observer.

According to the police, the suspect on a previous occasion had obtained Rs. 12 million from the business establishment as an advance to provide smuggled US Dollars from France via the United Nations. When the suspect called at the business establishment last week he pulled out a bundle of notes from a bag neatly wrapped in green paper and told officials that the blank paper notes could be converted into US dollars by adding a certain chemical. When the suspect was arrested at the Ocean Tower building at Bambalapitiya he had 20 US Dollars and a five-hundred rupee Indian currency note, three EU currency notes in 500 denomination, a Laptop computer and three mobile phones. The suspect was produced before Court in Hulftsdorp and remanded till October 24.

The CID is conducting investigations.