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Variety in the Heartland |
Counterfeiting Operation Busted
07/27/10 MRC/CJ
Two men face forgery charges in what the Secret Service described as a significant counterfeiting operation that produced mostly $10 and $20 bogus bills in a New Albany apartment.
Jerry Davey, 20, of Jeffersonville, and Johnathan Alan Frantz, 18, of New Albany, were arrested last week when police searched Frantz’s apartment. Authorities announced the arrests Monday and said they found about $4,500 in counterfeit bills in the apartment and in a bag that Frantz allegedly discarded in a nearby wooded area.
The investigation began last Tuesday when three merchants in the Greenville area of Floyd County reported to police that they had received counterfeit bills. More were reported the next day in Harrison County. And on Thursday, police in Oldham County in Kentucky investigated a counterfeit incident and called Indiana authorities with information that led to the apartment search later that evening, according to Indiana State Police Sgt. Jerry Goodin.
The Floyd County Sheriff’s Department, state police and the Secret Service participated in the investigation.
Frantz and Davey admitted stealing a printer and other supplies from Wal-Mart and Office Depot and using the items to make the fake money, according to police affidavits filed in court.
Goodin said the counterfeit operation was large by local standards.
Police believe much of the money was used to buy illegal drugs.
In the same apartment complex where the counterfeit bills were found, drug charges were filed against three people after a resident of a different apartment knocked on the door as police were completing their search, Goodin said.
The knock led to a search of the second apartment where police said they found nearly half a pound of marijuana along with hydrocodone and ecstasy pills. Residents of that apartment, Michael Casey, 19, Woodrow Sulikowski, 19, and Lindsey Portwood, 20, were charged with possession of marijuana under 30 grams. Casey also was charged with dealing in marijuana and possession of a controlled substance.
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