"The people must see it, feel it, and see the currency through light," Decymus stated at the Criminal Board Office (Bareskrim), Jakarta, on Friday.
It goes without saying that during this time, the circulation was high and could be used by the counterfeiters to spread fake bills among the people.
His side noted that the Indonesian Bank had already implemented preventive measures to anticipate the flow of counterfeit currency among the people.
"Strengthening the bill material and adding more security features will make it difficult to copy. There are 11 to 12 security features in a bill, such as being printed using a special ink, safety thread, BI recto-verso logo, rough texture, and hero portraits," he revealed.
Decymus also claimed that security technologies being used in printing Indonesian currency bills are already at par with those implemented in other countries.
"Those counterfeiters are not yet able to pass through level-three security features," he noted.
Earlier, Special Economical Crime Directorate of Police Bareskrim had apprehended a counterfeiter in Lampung.
"We caught a counterfeiter identified by the alias MA in Lampung," Chief Brigadier Agung Setya noted.
The case came to light when Bareskrim investigators received a tip-off from an informant on the suspect in Bandarlampung.
The 44-year-old suspect, with the alias MA, was apprehended in Natar South Lampung, Bandarlampung, on June 14.
During the interrogation, MA revealed that he worked with his partner LK in Bandarlampung. LK is currently on the run. He is believed to have left on June 11 the place where the counterfeit bills were printed.
MA is a recidivist of the same crime and was arrested by the Kalideres Police, West Jakarta, and jailed for 20 months.
"MA was recently released from prison two months ago," Setya said.
According to Setya, MA took to forgery of money to meet his daily needs and pay the loan installments of his pickup truck.
The investigators seized several pieces of evidence, such as one thousand counterfeit bills of 50 thousand denomination, half-finished counterfeits, paper cutter, three printers, a hair dryer, paper material, cutter, ruler, glass table, a television, spray paint, and a white pickup truck.
MA has violated Article 36, Clause 1, and/or Clause 2 and 3 of Law Number 7 of 2011 on money with a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2017
