Philadelphia Border Patrol officers seize nearly $15M of counterfeit currency

Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers based in Philadelphia seized four massive loads of counterfeit currency last month, raking in a combined total of $14,368,160 in various denominations of fake U.S. currency.

“Law enforcement knows that counterfeit and fictitious bank notes have been used in financial crimes, especially ones that target our nation’s more vulnerable seniors and small business owners,” Rene Ortega, CBP’s Acting Area Port Director in Philadelphia, said. “Customs and Border Protection is committed to working with our law enforcement partners to combat illicit efforts that target our citizens, our businesses, and the security of the United States economic system.”

By the agency’s own description, the currency closely resembled legal U.S. currency. The worry on CBP’s part was that the increased use of online marketplaces could have made it easier for inexperienced sellers or small businesses to be victimized with the counterfeit currency during fraudulent purchases or other fraud crimes.

For now, CBP officers have turned over the nearly $15 million worth of fake currency to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and U.S. Secret Service special agents in Philadelphia who worked with U.S. Secret Service agents in Chicago for an investigation. The U.S. Secret Service noted that counterfeiting currency remains a lucrative business, often used to finance illegal activities such as fraud, narcotics smuggling, terrorism and attacks on the national financial systems.