Hundreds of police take down alleged #counterfeiting ring
Police in Canada's two largest cities have raided dozens of addresses -- including three daycare centres -- to break up what they say was a sophisticated counterfeiting ring.
The daycares and other businesses were allegedly being used as fronts where high-quality fraudulent documents such as passports, licences and credit cards were secretly being printed.
RCMP Sgt. Luc Bessette said it's not clear how many counterfeit documents are in circulation because of the alleged crime ring. He added there was no evidence to suggest the group had ties to terrorists.
"For the moment. . . there are no links to people who could be considered a threat to national security," Bessette said at a press conference.
About 400 police took part in the raids, including detectives from the RCMP and the Surete du Quebec. They arrested 29 people and searched 39 locations across across Montreal, Toronto and the nearby suburb of Markham, Ont.
Police said they were still looking for three suspects as of Wednesday afternoon. All of the suspects are wanted on charges related to producing false documents.
"It's a highly sophisticated counterfeiting and fraud network, counterfeiting false documents, credit cards and IDs including false passports and false driving licences," RCMP Cpl. Caroline Letang told ctvmontreal.ca.
One branch of the counterfeiting operation allegedly made money by purchasing merchandise using fraudulent credit cards, Besette said. Another branch specialized in making fake documents.
Montreal police spokesperson Ian Lafreniere called the searches "a bad surprise for parents," after police closed several daycares in the city Wednesday morning as part of the operation.
Two home daycares in Montreal North and at least one on the city's east end were shut down. Officers were on hand at all three sites to reassure parents that the raids were not related to sexual misconduct, and that their children had not been in danger.
The criminal investigation began in 2006 after police were called to the office of a Montreal business that was experiencing flooding. There they found documents and equipment related to the alleged counterfeiting outfit.
