A married couple residing in the Sancti Spíritus province was recently arrested for selling Dollars US dollars (USD) forged to their victims, as reported by the Headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Agency of the Ministry of the Interior (Minint) in that territory.
according to a report from the local newspaper, Escambraywith each sale the couple obtained an approximate profit of 160,000 Cuban pesos (CUP), which they shared with another person linked to the criminal act, also detained by the police forces.
scams in #SanctiSpíritus : The 100 bills were fake
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The profits were around 160,000 pesos in each sale of false dollars. Associated with this case, today three people are arrested for the crime of counterfeiting coins #Cuba https://t.co/Q18EnsrbCW pic.twitter.com/NGJXPHN5RA— Escambray (@escambraycu) March 14, 2023
The main perpetrators of these events used the classified ads web portal revolico to announce the availability of $100 bills for sale, an attractive denomination to potential buyers.
The report adds that, once contact was established, the negotiations were completed through exchanges of messages from a false profile on Facebook, and in some cases also with telephone calls to offer “guarantees about the legitimacy and origin” of the money and initiate thus “a climate of greater confidence”.
To carry out the transaction, the woman took the alleged dollars to the client’s home, “tried to look friendly” and used a doctor’s gown to dispel any suspicion of the “client.”
As highlighted Escambraythe person managed to generate such a level of trust in his victims that they never noticed that all the tickets offered had the same number: ME42703207A.
So far, five victims of this crime of forgery, provided for and punished in the current Penal Code, have been identified. With four of them they managed to complete the act, because the young woman was arrested ired-handed while trying to scam a fifth person.
Three of the scammed reside in the municipality of Sancti Spíritus, one in Taguasco and another in Cabaiguán. Those implicated sold, on average, between 800 and 1,500 false dollars to each of those affected at prices ranging between 160 and 170 CUP pesos per dollar, the oscillating price of the USD in the informal market, according to the report by journalist Yosdany Morejón.
The investigative bodies of the Minint requested information from all those who have been possible victims of this case, and clarified that it is establishing the criminal responsibility of each of the accused, as well as the participation of other possible implicates.
The information disclosed so far does not provide details on the origin of the fake dollars, so it is not clear if they were introduced from abroad or were manufactured in the country.
The high demand for US dollars and the inability of the Cuban State to cover it has generated a flourishing informal market for the illegal purchase/sale of foreign currency, with official prices much higher than those established by the financial authorities, and which vary constantly.
Two assailants with firearms are arrested in Havana in an illegal currency exchange operation
This situation has been the cause of an increasing number of crimes linked to this activity, which in some cases have led to violence and the use of firearms, leaving people injured.
In addition, the lack of control over the price of foreign currency is one of the factors that weighs on the inflationary crisis that the Cuban economy is experiencing and that has led to the loss of the purchasing power of CUP.
