Police arrest five counterfeiters

Rwamagana - Five men are being held at Rwamagana police station after they were arrested in the process of manufacturing counterfeit currency yesterday.

Friday, June 04, 2010
END OF THE ROAD The suspects being paraded yesterday (Photo; S.Rwembeho)

Rwamagana - Five men are being held at Rwamagana police station after they were arrested in the process of manufacturing counterfeit currency yesterday.

The suspects are Jean Damascene Ntawizera, Joseph Nzirirera, Amos Sindayigaya, John Ngabo and Innocent Rwagasore.

The five were caught red-handed in a house making fake US Dollars following a tip off from a local businessman, Police said.

The source who informed the police about the scheme told The New Times that Ntawizera was carrying out experiments to fabricate the dollars when the police burst in.

"I had informed the police of what was going on. We went to Amos Sindayigaya’s, put on face masks as if we were real technicians in a laboratory”.

"We watched as miracles unfolded; some chemicals were mixed with foam, and  water, and as if by magic our ‘technician’ had made 50-dollar notes, before the police arrested us,” the source said.

Amos Sindayigaya revealed that the scheme was to forge 100 million US dollars, which would be divided among them.

"We were only struggling to get the initial capital to buy chemicals that our technician Damascene needed to start the work. In fact, a man known as Innocent had promised us Rwf 5 million,” he said.

The five men pleaded guilty of dealing in counterfeit.
Rwamagana District Police Commander (DPC),

Superintendent Vincent Kamanzi, said that the vigilance of the local population will not spare criminals.

"We are not going to tolerate thugs and illegal activities of any nature,” he warned.

Ends