ORANGE COUNTY, Fla.,None — The U.S. Secret Service says an Orange County man was involved with a counterfeit cash operation turning real $5 bills into fake $100 bills. However, they didn't catch him spending his phony money, they caught him selling it.
Agents say it was hard for store owners to know they were getting fake cash since the $5 bills passed all the usual tests.
Investigators say Juan Castro was exchanging his fake money for the real thing.
This is a complicated process. Agents say he was able to wipe off all the ink on a $5 bill and then reprint $100 on the bill. Store owners had a hard time identifying the fake money because the paper itself stayed the same.
Juan Castro was arrested after federal agents busted him when he tried to sell $15,000 of counterfeit money to an undercover agent for $2,500.
WFTV tried to talk to Castro's girlfriend at their Orlando home, but she claimed she didn't know anything about it.
"If you guys want to see him you know where he is at. Ask him," Castro's girlfriend said.
U.S. Secret Service agents say they were tipped off after a man was arrested in Georgia for having $10,000 worth of counterfeit bills. He told agents he bought the money from Castro and met him in a parking lot on West Oak Ridge Drive, just a few blocks away from his home.
Castro sold the counterfeit money to people and typically made anywhere from 10 to 50 percent profit.
"They were requesting people to pay them in genuine $5 bills so they could use the new $5 bills to make the next batch," said Jim Glendinning, U.S. Secret Service.
Investigators believe the money manufactured in Central Florida passed through almost one-dozen states. The U.S. Secret Service estimates the operation generated $10,000 to $15,000 a week for the past year and a half. At its peak, they think it generated $25,000 to $30,000 a week.
Agents believe Castro is just part of a larger counterfeit ring.
Agents say counterfeit money is typically manufactured in South America and then smuggled into the United States. However, in this operation the money is being made in Florida.