June 27, 2011 Prince George County police-WalMart security bust counterfeiters www.privateofficer.com
Prince George County MD June 27 2011 Police in Prince George’s County have arrested eight people in connection with a counterfeiting scheme that used a local retailer to exchange fake bills for real ones.
The suspects were arrested June 15 at the Walmart on Annapolis Road in Landover Hills, said Lt. Brad Pyle, commander of the county police department’s organized retail crime unit.
A local printer of counterfeit money sold $100 in fake bills to a group of contractors working at the store for $30 in real money. The fake bills were then used to buy pre-paid Visa cards at the register of a cashier who was also in on the scheme. The cashier would then dispense the counterfeit bills as change over the course of her shift, while the pre-paid Visa cards would be used to withdraw cash from ATMs, Pyle said.
But the system was not perfect, and not all the fake bills were given out.
Security officials at the store noticed that counterfeit bills appeared in the cashier’s drawer on several occasions, and identified the contractors from security camera footage, Pyle said.
Store officials contacted police, and the suspects were arrested June 15.
“Walmart security did a great job,” Pyle said. “I can’t commend them enough.”
While it’s fairly common to find individual counterfeit bills that have made it into circulation, disrupting this sort of operation is rare, Pyle said. “We had the whole organization laid out for us right there,” he said.
Suspects Thomas Dossy, 31, of Bladensburg; Terran Wells, 22, of Riverdale; Carlvestri Clark, 30, of Capitol Heights; Aaron Gould, 27, of Bladensburg; Cassandra Spencer, 39, of Seat Pleasant; Gregg Beals, 22, of Chicago; and Sherita Nesbit, 26, of Bladensburg have been charged with issuing false documents, possessing or issuing forged currency and theft of between $1,000 and $10,000.
Ervin Corum, 23, of Capitol Heights, has been charged with issuing a false document and possessing or issuing forged currency, according to district court records.
Police believe Clark was responsible for printing the bills, and that the total amount of counterfeit money produced was between $5,000 and $7,000 dollars.
Attorney information was not listed for any of the suspects.
Source:gazette
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