South Sudan national security arrests 14 for circulating $93m counterfeit dollars

JUBA – The Operation Security Division of South Sudan’s National Security Service (NSS) has announced the arrest of 14 members of a criminal network in the country’s capital Juba in connection with circulation of 93 million counterfeit U.S dollars and 400,000 South Sudanese Pounds, according to a NSS media official.

Speaking to journalists in Juba this morning, David John Kumuri, the Director of Public Relation at National Security Service, said the 14 suspects, two foreigners (one from Guinea Bissau and one Liberian) and 14 South Sudanese) were arrested in possession of various counterfeit money and other illegal materials on Wednesday.

“The team managed to apprehend an amount of 88,000,000 black U.S dollars, 5,071,000 incomplete U.S dollars, and 400,000 notes of South Sudanese pounds as well as a chemical product used to produce powders and other ingredients,” Kumuri told reporters in Juba on Thursday.

Kumuri also disclosed that security officials have recovered stolen vehicles.

“The second operation yielded apprehension of stolen items which include 3 Reksha, 1 Noah, 2 Premio, and 1 Van Guards vehicle and more than 6 motorcycles,” he said

He said the counterfeiting of money is a serious crime punishable with terms not exceeding seven years under South Sudan Penal Court.

“The suspects have fully admitted to stealing owners of the counterfeit of United States dollars and they have already injected some money into the local market,” he said.

He warned the crimes who are still at large to desist from counterfeiting of money.

“The National Security Service is committed to working with public agencies to continue to identify these criminals and dismantle their network. The detained criminals pending the investigation process and Internal Security Bureau seriously warn the criminals still at large and practicing the act to deceit from its as operation to the counter and crackdown their network is underway,” he said.

He urged the citizens to be aware of these sophistical financial schemes in a bid to protect their business from this risk, noting the security organs are working hard to disrupt the criminal network of this scheme.

On 26 January this year, the Internal Security Bureau of South Sudan’s National Security Service (NSS) arrested Liberian, S. Sudanese men for circulating almost 2 million fake US dollars.