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Police apprehend three counterfeiters with $80,000 fake money in St. Petersburg

The police learnt that over 100 fake 5,000-ruble banknotes were sent from St. Petersburg to the Belgorod Region by postal remittances in February this year

MOSCOW, May 4. /TASS/. Police in St. Petersburg apprehended three counterfeiters with fake banknotes worth a total of 6 million rubles (about $80,000), Russian Interior Ministry Spokeswoman Irina Volk told TASS on Tuesday.

"The police learnt that over 100 fake 5,000-ruble banknotes were sent from St. Petersburg to the Belgorod Region by postal remittances in February this year. In the course of operational search measures, the police established the senders’ identity," the spokeswoman said.

"Upon their attempt to sell fake banknotes in the city of St. Petersburg, the suspects who turned out to be two local residents, were apprehended. Another perpetrator was apprehended in the town of Pushkin. In his car, the operatives found a large batch of counterfeit banknotes. Overall, fake money worth over 6 million rubles was seized from the illegal circulation," she specified.

The police have launched criminal cases under Article 186 of Russia’s Criminal Code (‘Producing, Storing, Transporting or Selling Counterfeit Money or Securities’), the spokeswoman said.

"The apprehended individuals have been remanded in custody as a measure of restraint. The criminal scheme was exposed in the course of a criminal probe earlier launched by the Interior Ministry’s Investigative Department for the Belgorod Region against other counterfeiters. Four perpetrators were apprehended in the period from November 2020 to February 2021. The police seized over 1,000 fake US banknotes worth a total of over 5 million rubles from them," the spokeswoman said.