Peruvian police say they have broken up a family clan that was one of the country’s top producers and exporters of counterfeit U.S. dollars and Euros, daily Peru.21 reported.
General Cesar Cortijo, the head of the police’s criminal investigation division, known as Dirincri, confiscated this week $2 million and 1.5 million euros in counterfeit notes from a criminal ring allegedly led by the Quispe Rodriguez family.
Cortijo said that the Quispe Rodriguez’ used drug trafficking methods to smuggle the fake currency from Peru to the United States and Europe. The family also allegedly used their 13-year-old son in the trafficking.
Police officers made the bust when a 30-year-old man was caught handing the money to the minor. A few blocks away, in Lima’s poor district of San Juan de Lurigancho, police found a house where a large amount of the counterfeit notes were produced and held.
Peru is considered Latin America’s top producer of counterfeit currency.
