Military police in Phnom Penh seized over $42,000 worth of counterfeit currency and arrested four residents of Tuol Kok district’s Boeng Kak I commune during a raid Sunday afternoon, military police officials said yesterday.
Hong Vinol, chief of the military police’s judicial information department, said police found Leng Kieng, 24, Huot Sok Hy, 27, Lim Sarath, 28, and her mother Pen Phan, 55, in possession of $30,000 in forged US ten dollar bills, $10,000 in forged 10,000 riel bills, and $2,681 in forged 1,000 Thai baht bills.
“Counterfeit currency used to circulate fairly often, but never with Cambodian currency,” Mr Vinol said yesterday, adding that the quality of the forgery was also unusually high.
Mr Vinol said that investigators believe Mr Kieng, who is a designer by trade, was responsible for running the counterfeiting operation.
In February, a Pailin province villager was arrested for circulating $500 worth of counterfeit $10, $20 and $100 bills in Krao district’s Stung Kach commune, and in a raid last year, police confiscated $10,000 worth of counterfeit US $20 bills from four men in Siem Reap city.
In 2006, former Phnom Penh police chief Heng Pov was sentenced to an additional 14 years in jail for possessing counterfeit US currency after receiving 53.5 years for murder and attempted murder.
