Police arrest three men and seize HK$1.37 million in fake cash during raid on Kowloon flat
Operation in To Kwa Wan nets 1,514 notes as well as stash of stolen goods, including mobile phones, tablet computers, watches and handbags
Police seized nearly HK$1.4 million (US$178,000) in fake cash and arrested three men in Kowloon on Monday night – the third such raid in the past two months.
A total of 1,514 bogus banknotes worth HK$1.37 million were discovered in a flat, while officers also bagged 64 mobile phones, four tablet computers, 11 handbags and 10 watches, all of which were suspected to be stolen items.
The number of bogus notes netted in the raid was almost as many as the total figure seized in similar cases in the first six months of the year. Police confiscated 1,618 fake notes with a face value of HK$467,530 between January and June, a 75 per cent rise compared with operations in the same period in 2017.
Officers detained the first suspect, a 47-year-old American, in Yin On Street, To Kwa Wan at about 10pm on Monday. He was carrying 240 fake HK$500 notes.
The suspect was taken to a nearby flat which was believed to have been used as a counterfeit workshop. Inside the flat, police found another 44 fake HK$500 notes and 1,230 bogus HK$1,000 notes along with three printers, a computer and other tools. Some of the notes were unfinished.