More than 20 billion forged Iraqi dinars (more than 10 million dollars) had been confiscated in raids by Iraqi police and US authorities here last week. Six people were arrested in the raids that led to the confiscation of money printers, machines to print numbers on bills and false printing plates as well as stacks of the forged Iraqi dinars. In Baghdad, coalition troops already engaged in collecting arms and hunting for looted art treasures have added a third task to their workload: a crackdown on counterfeiters before the new dinar comes on stream on October 15. Iraqi police Colonel Safa Adeen Mahdi Salih said that some of the suspects arrested in the latest raids were forging the bills in their own houses and the rest used poor quality printers. The word on the streets of Baghdad is that half the money anyone has in their pocket is fake.
| They've got 30 solid years of the country being run by crooks. Not surprising there's a large segment of the population trying to adhere to the old ways. |
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