DAMMAM, 24 January 2008 — The Alkhobar police recently arrested a Saudi counterfeiter who specialized in making fake SR500 bank notes. Col. Yusuf Al-Qahtani, official spokesman for the Eastern Province police, said the Alkhobar police had arrested a local youth after a tip-off that he was passing counterfeit currency.
“The youth used a copier to make colored copies of original notes and passed them off as originals,” Al-Qahtani told Arab News yesterday. The anti-forgery unit of the Eastern Province Police is currently investigating if the suspect was working alone or was involved in a network of counterfeiters and accomplices.
The department is also investigating another case that involved counterfeiting denominations of SR500, SR200 and SR100. The notes were identified as counterfeit by banks in Ahsa, Hafr Al-Baten and Khafji recently.
Most counterfeiters in the 55 cases arrested over the past four months in the region had forged SR500 bills. The police have arrested 20 suspects of various nationalities, including Saudis, Al-Qahtani said.
In another development, the Qatif police arrested a Saudi man on a charge of robbery at knifepoint. In one instance he stabbed a man who resisted the robbery attempt, Al-Qahtani said.
He added that the police had been on the lookout for the Saudi robber for two weeks following several complaints, mostly from expatriate taxi drivers, that a man was asking to be taken to places outside the city. Upon reaching the destination, the man would ask them to go to another place and then pull out a knife and take all their money, their mobile phones and residence permits. The man would then take the car, throwing out the driver.
The police arrested the Saudi when he crashed into another car as he was attempting to escape a police car that was chasing him. Expatriate taxi drivers identified him as the man who had robbed them of their money and belongings.
