Navy marines arrested in Cambodia with fake dollar notes valued at $7.5 million

[ParadiseLost]

Did they all have the same serial number?

[poweratradio]

Notice how the headlines, do not say Thai!

Yes indeed and it was the only reason I read the thread???? The headline suggested to me that it possibly was yanks!

[JAG]

Police noticed a suspicious boat moving across the Mekong River towards Thailand at around 4am.

What does a suspicious boat travelling across the river look like?

Funnels of bong smoke pouring out the back, Bob Marley cranked up full blast, little Laotians with rastafa hair do's,tea cozies on their heads and blood shot eyes swinging off the boat???

Thanks mate, you've just given me the best laugh I've had for days!

[JAG]

ClutchClark, on 21 Sept 2014 - 17:32, said:

MediaWatcher, on 21 Sept 2014 - 17:16, said:

Bugger sending them back, a slap on the wrist and little else...they broke the law in Cambodia, so they should stand trial there, if guilty, jailed there.

Thats not the way it works for military members of most Western countries. The military brings them home for Court-Martial and to serve any sentence.

Rubbish.

Well thats the way it works for Canadian and US service members who commit crimes abroad.

Would any intelligent and knowledgable Europeans or Australians care to chime in.

Normally a member of the UK forces who commits a crime in a foreign country is dealt with by the local civvy police and civvy courts. The only time Royal Military Police and Courts Martial will be involved is if the soldiers are stationed in the foreign country and there is a specific status of the forces agreement covering the crime involved, as for example existed between the UK and West Germany regarding British Army of the Rhine.

If convicted and sentenced they will usually be discharged, and will serve any sentence as a civilian.

[JAG]

Counterfeiting is an attack on a country. Counterfeiting has invoked airstrikes.

The article blithely comments that the Thai authorities want the criminals back and will not protect them.

Then, they even mixed up drug interdiction stories to try and dilute the napalm! But napalm is not water soluble. In military parlance, this is FUBAR.

The US will take this much more seriously than human trafficking, and even now those smart nasty people who are an important part of every government are discussing options over the morning briefs. I am certain that "terminate with extreme prejudice" will be a fielded suggestion. This will invoke a severe and harsh response, and the response will not be public.

Idiots. You opened a can of worms that was filled with baby vipers. Mark my words, a very dangerous line has been crossed, and there is no face -saving exit for the Thai Navy on this one.

The Thai Navy is in dire need of a good house cleaning. Since it is obvious they can't handle the bleach and Windex, I am certain someone else will.

countering

Given that most of the Royal Thai Navy LGBs (large grey boats) are broken and tied to a dock wall I suppose that the RTN personnel have plenty of time on their hands to get involved in this sort of thing.

If it was a private venture then it was very silly and very naughty. If there was any Naval involvement then it was very very silly, very very naughty, and quite a lot of rather unforgiving hard faced people are going to take a great deal of interest. I'm sure I read somewhere that the U S Secret Service have a role in countering counterfeiting?

Incidentally, they weren't RTN SEALs were they?

[Paulzed]

Police noticed a suspicious boat moving across the Mekong River towards Thailand at around 4am.

What does a suspicious boat travelling across the river look like?

Funnels of bong smoke pouring out the back, Bob Marley cranked up full blast, little Laotians with rastafa hair do's,tea cozies on their heads and blood shot eyes swinging off the boat???

Thanks mate, you've just given me the best laugh I've had for days!

No Worries mate anytime, I also forgot to mention them munching on a big bowl of peanuts and bananas

[Joe Bloggs]

These would appear to be poor forgeries. I live in the UK and over here higher value notes are physically larger. Notes also have watermarks, metal stripes and holograms so you cannot forge these on a normal printing machine.

To my dismay my Uncle Sam prints all his banknotes the same size and allegedly on the same paper. Allegedly it is possible to bleach $1 bills and reprint them as $100 bills! It is also said that on the so-called Supernotes the printing is sharper than that on the real thing.

In the UK blind people can tell the value of a banknote by its size. This would not appear to be possible with US currency.

IMHO it is well past time that the US currency was revamped.

As to $7.5 millions, in $100 bills, it would be 75,000 banknotes. As they weight about 1g each the weight would be around 75 kilos. That's a lot of weight even when split three ways. They were too greedy!

[IAMHERE]

ClutchClark, on 21 Sept 2014 - 17:32, said:

MediaWatcher, on 21 Sept 2014 - 17:16, said:

Bugger sending them back, a slap on the wrist and little else...they broke the law in Cambodia, so they should stand trial there, if guilty, jailed there.

Thats not the way it works for military members of most Western countries. The military brings them home for Court-Martial and to serve any sentence.

Rubbish.

Well thats the way it works for Canadian and US service members who commit crimes abroad.

Would any intelligent and knowledgable Europeans or Australians care to chime in.

I doubt there is a 'status of forces' agreement between Thailand and Cambodia. Besides the Mexicans still have a USA Sargeant in prison for crossing the border. I'd think being a military stationed in a country is different rules than a tourist that is in the military.

[IAMHERE]

_{Meanwhile, police arrested four Laotians early yesterday in the border province of Beung Kan for smuggling 495 kilos of marijuana into Thailand. The haul is worth about Bt14 million.}

_{My math works that out to be abut $28000 an ounce. My math is bad or that is some good weed; perhaps both.}

[mike324]

let them rot in Cambodia, why would thailand want criminals back home

[MediaWatcher]

It will be interesting to see how the Royal Thai Navy reacts to this story being published, bearing in mind they have charged Phuketwan with defamation, and all they did was re-publish part of an article from Reuters, they have NOT been brave enough, or is that foolish enough, to take on Reuters. I'm sure Ed will read this, if so, I'm your biggest pain in the arse....Laurie.

[smutcakes]

_{Meanwhile, police arrested four Laotians early yesterday in the border province of Beung Kan for smuggling 495 kilos of marijuana into Thailand. The haul is worth about Bt14 million.}

_{My math works that out to be abut $28000 an ounce. My math is bad or that is some good weed; perhaps both.}

It looks like your maths is awful.

495 Kilos = 17,460 ounces

14,000,000/ 17460= 801 baht per ounce

However my maths is also pretty awful, so i stand to be corrected

[Bluespunk]

_{Meanwhile, police arrested four Laotians early yesterday in the border province of Beung Kan for smuggling 495 kilos of marijuana into Thailand. The haul is worth about Bt14 million.}

_{My math works that out to be abut $28000 an ounce. My math is bad or that is some good weed; perhaps both.}

28,282 baht a kilo, Not ounce.

[DEQ]

More info in today's Cambodia Daily

http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/two-thais-charged-over-counterfeit-cash-one-set-free-68275/

[Thaimaishoe]

These would appear to be poor forgeries. I live in the UK and over here higher value notes are physically larger. Notes also have watermarks, metal stripes and holograms so you cannot forge these on a normal printing machine.

To my dismay my Uncle Sam prints all his banknotes the same size and allegedly on the same paper. Allegedly it is possible to bleach $1 bills and reprint them as $100 bills! It is also said that on the so-called Supernotes the printing is sharper than that on the real thing.

In the UK blind people can tell the value of a banknote by its size. This would not appear to be possible with US currency.

IMHO it is well past time that the US currency was revamped.

As to $7.5 millions, in $100 bills, it would be 75,000 banknotes. As they weight about 1g each the weight would be around 75 kilos. That's a lot of weight even when split three ways. They were too greedy!

Your info is about 20 years out of date. In 1995/1996 the 100 was redesigned. In the ensuing 15 years each note in decending then ascending order of denomination was redesigned twice*, culminating with the redesign of the 100 again in 2011 (release delayed until Oct 2013). The notes have plastic strips with the denomination embedded vertically in each bill. The location is different in each denomination, and the denomination is printed on the plastic strip. Furthermore there is a faint series of concentric circles (centered on one of the eyes of the portrait I think) that is there to defeat raster scanners, because they will leave a moire pattern in the scanned image. The bills also include colors other than green now. The new bills retain many previous security measures such as very particular paper, and ink, as well as the printing process itself.

There are other security measures in the bills, but these are the ones I remember off the top of my head. IIRC, keeping them the same size was somehow related to their use/acceptance in vending machines - obviously not something that could not be overcome since other countries have vending machines and do just fine, but I guess blind people just don't rate in the US! Seriously I would like to know how the blind deal with US paper money! I know the coin money is all touch identifiable, I wonder if paper money can be distinguished by feel as well - obviously not by size though.

EDIT

* Forgot to mention, the one was not redesigned twice, and may not have been redesigned at all I do not remember that detail.

[heybruce]

More info in today's Cambodia Daily

http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/two-thais-charged-over-counterfeit-cash-one-set-free-68275/

And the Captain walks free--he said he knew nothing about the counterfeit money and had unspecified documents that 'proved' he was not involved. No explanation of what these documents were or why he was accompanying two men carrying more than $7 million in fake $100 bills.

That clears everything up. Move along folks, nothing to see here.

[sfokevin]

After dismissal these guys have a great career at the Rice Board waiting for them...

[belg]

"He said if these three marines were found guilty in court, they would be dismissed from naval service."

so no jail time? better keep them in cambodia