SEAL BEACH – A string of transactions with counterfeit money in Seal Beach prompted an investigation that led to the arrest of eight suspected gang members in a national counterfeiting scheme on Thursday.

Police and the U.S. Secret Service said at a news conference that the suspects bought merchandise at stores, including Toys “R” Us and Nordstrom, then returned the goods for cash refunds.

“The money was used to fund their criminal organization and support their lifestyles," Seal Beach police Chief Joe Stilinovich said.

The investigation started in December when some suspected gang members tried to use fake $20 bills at a Toys “R” Us at 12347 Seal Beach Blvd. On April 25 members of the group bought items using the fake money at a Toys “R” Us in Cypress and later returned them to a store in Seal Beach for a refund.

“We later tied them to 15 separate incidents in Seal Beach,” Stilinovich said.

Since then police departments nationwide and federal agents have traced similar bills to members of two Los Angeles gangs: the “51 Nothing But Trouble Gangster Crips” and the “52nd Hoover Gangster Crips.”

More than 4,200 transactions totaling $100,000 have been documented so far across the country, said Secret Service Special Agent Rob Savage.

Locally, similar crimes and bills have been reported by police in Brea, Cal State Fullerton, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, La Habra, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Placentia and Westminster, said Sgt. Phil Gonshak.

After the investigation started, it was determined the bills were passed as early as 2013 and as far as Jamaica -- but 80 percent of the crimes happened in California, authorities said.

The suspects would spend anywhere from $5 to $1,000 during shopping trips and stores would lose money they could not retrieve.

“Unlike a fraud that you could take with a credit card and the credit card company could reimburse you, you’re stuck with the counterfeit currency note. You’re stuck with the loss,” Savage said.

Authorities carried out 15 search and arrest warrants on Thursday in Los Angeles County and found computers, receipts, gift cards, weapons and counterfeit bills.

They are still investigating where the fake bills were manufactured and how many more instances of the fraud took place.

Secret Service agents said the bills have slightly different characteristics as authentic ones but are indistinguishable to store workers who haven’t been trained to detect phony money.

The eight arrested people were booked on several charges including fraud and burglary.

Gonshak said the scheme is unrelated to arrests in Seal Beach last week when two men tried to use fake $100 bills at a Vons grocery store.

Crips don't usually come down to Orange County except to visit the beach and Disneyland. Counterfeiting is a move outside their traditional area. The bills must be pretty high quality.

I think this is the 4th story ive posted of blood and crip gangs getting busted for white collar crimes on both coasts.

What gangs are in Orange county? Ive read it was a stronghold for groups like nazi lowriders and other skinhead groups.

Here's a link to a local news site, detailing the arrests in detail. The Crips set appear to be Pacific Islander, which is common out here (Pacific Islander based Crip sets)

http://patch.com/california/losalamitos/seal-beach-police-arrest-eight-massive-counterfeiting-raid



An unrelated counterfeit bust:

http://patch.com/california/losalamitos/seal-beach-police-arrest-counterfeiting-suspects-stolen-car


Counterfeit bills have been based down here for years, it's common sight to read in the police blotter.

Scorsese,

We've got gangs of all sort of ethnic skin stripes in Orange County, and to a certain extent the comparison between OC and LA are right, OC organized crime is a mere smaller version, albeit with a helluva lot more skinheads.

Nazi Low Riders (NLR) aren't really around anymore. Think of them as the 80's-90's street version of the Aryan Brotherhood. Check out PEN1 of "PE-NI", "Public Enemy Number One", who replaced the NLR as the preferred street soldiers of the AB. PEN1 shot caller, Donald Mazza, got even sworn over to the AB as a sort of unity bond between the two gangs.

Check out the Gangland episode regarding PEN1, Ross Kemp On Gangs also did a terrific coverage of Southern California white power groups, which can be described as "needle Nazi's" due to their drug use.

Imagine white power skin heads, who dress like Cholos (California Mexican gangbanger) and habitually smoke crystal meth. Meth, like biker gangs, fuels a lot of their criminal actions, a sort of less violent comparison to crack and black gangs in 1980's LA.

Southsider Chicano gangs have the most gangs and gang members in OC (too many to name.) It's known for being one of the whitest conservative counties in Southern California but cities like Santa Ana are almost pure Mexican/Chicano. Other cities like Fullerton, Garden Grove and even Huntington Beach have Chicano gangs.
There's virtually no Real Black gangs in OC. I know there's been some here and there but they're not really on the map like that.

It's pretty interesting how LA crip gangs would decide to do this stuff in a city like Seal Beach. A city known for having no gangs or crime what so ever.