Five accused of trying to pass counterfeit $50 bills at drug store

BY CAROLYN P. SMITH - News-Democrat

E-Mail

Print Reprint or license

Text Size:

tool goes here

EAST ST. LOUIS -- Four men and a woman were arrested after being suspected of trying to pass counterfeit money at a drug store.

Police did not identifying the suspects pending charges.

Detective Michael Floore said police were dispatched Monday to the Walgreens at 2510 State St. to investigate a man trying to use counterfeit $50 bills.

When police arrived, they found the five suspects in a 1994 Crown Victoria.

"They were in the vehicle cutting the counterfeit money up," Floore said.

All of them were arrested. Police also seized additional counterfeit money in various denominations in the car, Floore said.

Two of the people in custody are from Belleville, one is from East St. Louis, one is from Granite City and one is from Florissant, Mo.

They range in age from 19 to 49.

The case, along with the suspects, were turned over to the U.S. Treasury Department on Monday afternoon.

Floore said this counterfeit scheme was the largest the city has seen this year. He confirmed that there have been some other cases, "but nothing of this magnitude," he said.

Contact reporter Carolyn P. Smith at 239-2503.

Comments

Commenting allows our readers to share information, insights and observations about the news stories on our site. We encourage lively, thoughtful discussion, but ask you to refrain from abusive, racist or profane comments. Do not attack other posters for their viewpoints, race, gender or sexual orientation. We do not monitor each and every posting, but reserve the right to delete comments that violate these rules. Notify us of violations by hitting the "Report Abuse" button. Repeat or flagrant offenders will lose their commenting privileges, at our discretion.