Two Orange County residents, one a 42-year-old and the other a 27-year-old, were arrested on Tuesday, May 30, 2017. They had been under surveillance by the Norco Special Enforcement Team and the United States Secret Service after at least one of the agencies had received an anonymous tip that the two men had potentially been in possession of counterfeit currency.
The multi-agency task force investigating the pair were successful in executing a search warrant at a home along California Avenue’s 4500 block in Norco, the same afternoon they were arrested. The search of the home resulted in the discovery of an undisclosed amount of suspected counterfeit currency and firearms charges. The younger of the two men was detained on a probation violation charge as well.
Evidence recovered during the search of the home also turned up evidence that led police to issue a warrant for the arrest of a third suspect. That individual, a 31-year-old Norco man was arrested later that same day in a separate incident also on suspicion of possessing counterfeit currency.
The pair of men initially arrested in this case were booked into the Indio jail. Bail was set in the 42-year-old Huntington Beach resident’s case at $45,000. As for the 27-year-old Orange resident, he was being held without bail due to fact that there is a warrant out for his arrest in another county. The third defendant was booked into Riverside’s Robert Presley Detention Center. A $30,000 bail was waived by the judge in this case.
Any suspected cases of possession or manufacturing of counterfeit currency are investigated by the United States Secret Service. Federal offenses such as this tend to be prosecuted aggressively. Therefore it’s important that anyone charged with such a crime seeks out the advice of a skilled Orange County federal crimes attorney early on in their legal matter.
Source: The Orange County Register, “Three arrested in connection with Norco counterfeit currency investigation,” Gail Wesson, May 31, 2017