JEDDAH, 10 December 2007 — A gang of eight Africans, including one woman, who was peddling around $266,000 worth of counterfeit US dollars, was recently arrested in Jeddah. With the price of the dollar standing at SR3.75, the gang was offering fake notes as originals at SR2.25.
Following a tip-off about a woman selling fake currency, Jeddah police monitored the gang. The woman was found to be carrying a large amount of dollars and visiting possible buyers. She told a police source that the notes were real and that she could not exchange them at banks for reasons she did not want to reveal.
“In order to lure the gang, an undercover officer offered to buy all of the notes for SR600,000,” said a police spokesman, adding that the gang’s leader told the officer to meet him at a specified location.
On the day of the arrest, the undercover officer got into a car with the head of the gang, who drove to the Al-Rabwa district and then to south Jeddah to ensure he was not being followed. In south Jeddah, the man took the officer into an apartment, which was then raided by police. The African gang first resisted arrest. However, they were finally overpowered.
Meanwhile, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice arrested two men selling alcohol and hashish in Al-Tayareen in north Jeddah.
Commission members had been following the two men, both Africans, for a number of days before making their arrest. One of the men has a legal iqama, while the second is an overstayer, who had been deported a number of years ago but had managed to return to the Kingdom illegally.
They were arrested following tip-off and were found to have SR10,000 and a substantial amount of hashish in their possession.
