Teens nabbed
for using PC to counterfeit
04/20/00- Updated 04:13 PM ET
PLANTATION, Fla. (AP) - Two teen-agers
and their 20-year-old friend were arrested after they
allegedly used their computers to make $2,000 in
counterfeit bills for an undercover Secret Service
agent.
It was the latest in a string of
counterfeiting arrests nationally involving children as
young as 13 and their personal computers.
''There has been a substantial
increase in these computer-generated cases in the last
few years,'' said Secret Service spokesman David
Zimmerman. ''These high-resolution scanners, copiers and
printers have become more affordable and are in more and
more homes.''
In the case of the suburban Fort
Lauderdale suspects, agents say the fake bills were
produced in a bedroom.
The undercover agent contacted Omar
Mustafa, 20, about making a deal and was met Friday in a
supermarket parking lot by Emad Hasan, 17, a high school
senior and Mustafa's cousin, investigators said.
With Hasan in custody, agents went to
the home of David Bethel, 18, a prep school honor
student and football player. When agents told Bethel
they needed to talk to him, he ''responded by putting
his head down and saying, 'I know,''' a Secret Service
affidavit said.
Agents say Bethel showed them the
equipment he used to make the money.
All three pleaded innocent to
counterfeiting charges and have been released on bonds
up to $50,000. No trial date has been set.
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