An Athens-Clarke County police dispatcher resigned after she was implicated in a ring that distributed counterfeit $100 bills throughout the county.
According to police, the fake bills were printed by members of a South American drug cartel, then smuggled into the country, the Athens Banner-Herald reported. Some of the counterfeits were channeled in Athens-Clarke County, where a group of people distributed the fake money, the newspaper said.
The former dispatcher is married to a prime suspect in the distribution ring and they lived together in the Lavender Glen subdivision in northwestern Clarke County, according to police.
The dispatcher resigned July 18, a week after local police and U.S. Secret Service agents searched her home, Athens-Clarke Police Chief Jack Lumpkin told the Banner-Herald.
She began her leave July 2, according to Lumpkin, the same day police say counterfeit C-notes began showing up in local stores and restaurants in the county.
The distribution ring includes at least nine people who used the rush of the Independence Day weekend to pass the phony bills to busy store clerks at places like Publix and Kroger, police said. They used counterfeit $100 bills to make many small purchases to convert the fake money into real cash, according to police.
A surveillance camera videoed the dispatcher while she was with a group that passed a counterfeit bill at one convenience store, according to police, though she was not caught passing funny money on camera, according to police.
There is no evidence "at this time" that the woman misused her position as dispatcher in connection with the counterfeit money distribution ring, the police chief said.
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