Counterfeit

Annapolis police released Tuesday a description and photos of a man they believe purchased beer at five bars and restaurants using counterfeit $100 bills on March 21. The man is described as black, bearded and in his late 50s to early 60s, police said. He is 5 feet 6 to 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs more than 300 pounds, according to police. Five restaurants and bars in downtown Annapolis and the Eastport neighborhood reported that the man came in, bought a six-pack of beer -- usually Heineken -- and left with his change and the beer.

Hundreds of people who came to watch their loved ones graduate from Coppin State University were turned away Saturday after the venue filled to capacity, and the staff suspected counterfeit tickets were to blame. Clara Phillips came to Baltimore from Houston to watch her son, Stephen Calvit, walk across the stage to accept his master's degree. When she got inside the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, she said staff closed the doors to the auditorium and things began to get rowdy. The scene became chaotic as people tried to push through, several witnesses said, with elderly people and children in danger of being shoved by the crowd.

Police seized more than $15,000 in counterfeit money after chasing suspected drug dealers to a home in West Baltimore Thursday morning. Ten people were arrested and raw heroin was also seized in a bust that netted more than $22,000, including the counterfeit funds, said police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. He declined to release the names of the suspects, saying that the U.S. Secret Service was involved and the investigation is continuing. At about 6:45 a.m., the Central District operations squad observed a gold Pontiac Grand Prix, which they believed to be involved in drug activity, in the 600 block of McCulloh St. and conducted brief surveillance.

Maryland State Police and Harford County Sheriff's Office report: Aberdeen Danielle Nichole Nixon, 28, of the 2400 block of Post Road, was arrested Friday on a bench warrant in a case in which he is charged with two counts of vandalism. A person was assaulted Friday in the 1000 block of Old Philadelphia Road. Abingdon Bradley Barton Peeples, 27, of the 3100 block of Laurel View Drive, was arrested Sunday as a fugitive from Pennsylvania. Several counterfeit $20 bills were reported a store on Wegmans Boulevard Friday.

A Bay Bridge maintenance worker was arrested yesterday by Maryland Transportation Authority Police detectives in an alleged counterfeiting and money-laundering scheme. Kennan F. Ray, 43, of the first block of Stonecroft Road in Baltimore was charged with counterfeiting and passing phony currency to tollbooth operators, according to District Court records. Police said he laundered phony $20 bills through toll operators to obtain valid U.S. currency. Detectives said Ray, who was assigned to sanitation duties at the bridge, approached at least five tollbooth workers with counterfeit cash in the past week, asking for change.

Westminster police are warning merchants to beware of counterfeit $20 bills being passed at area shopping centers.Nineteen counterfeit bills, which appear to be lighter green than a genuine $20 bill -- "as if they have gone through the wash" -- have been confiscated since Saturday, police said.The U.S. Secret Service has been notified, and police are seeking several young male suspects and at least one young female. The suspects, described as ages 18 to 23, approached sales clerks at Cranberry Mall businesses, Metro Food Market, Pennsylvania Dutch Farmers' Market and Ledo Pizza.

An 18-year-old Reisterstown man is in the Carroll County Detention Center, accused of selling counterfeit LSD to an undercover officer last month.Robert F. Haddigan of the 100 block of Caraway Road in Reisterstown was charged last week with distributing counterfeit LSD, possession with intent to distribute counterfeit LSD and fraud. He is being held on $25,000 bond.In court papers, Tfc. Robert Heuisler wrote that on Nov. 16 he met a man in the 1100 block of Liberty Road in Sykesville to purchase LSD.The man received $800 from Trooper Heuisler and said that he would call when he returned from Virginia with the drugs, according to the court papers.

When he paid a scalper $120 before Wednesday's Orioles game, Kevin Litz knew he had one of the hottest tickets in town. But he didn't know how hot until he got to the seat.That's when the usher in the upper deck handed the ticket back to Litz, explaining that he was about the 10th person that night to present a ticket for seat A-6 in Section 372. The real owner was sitting in A-6, enjoying the game.Litz had been had by a counterfeiter."He evidently was making a fortune," he said of the mysterious seller he encountered a few blocks from the ballpark.

MIAMI -- Some Christmas gifts are not what they appear to be. To demonstrate this, Lou Marcos, a Customs Service agent, hoisted what looked like a designer-signed scarf off the table and shook it, so the bold logo stood out from the swirl of colorful paisley patterns."

Counterfeit $100 and $20 bills have circulated in the Mount Airy area recently, according to a warning issued by Maryland State Police at Westminster. At least two phony $100 bills have been used, the most recent yesterday, said police, who are working with the Secret Service. Other suspected counterfeit bills reportedly have been rejected by businesses, including the bogus $20. Police have a counterfeit $100 bill, which they said appears to have been printed on a color-copying machine.

The Northern Virginia couple throwing down $100 tokens at Maryland Live casino last month may have looked like aspiring high-rollers, but police say they were gambling with fake chips. Maryland State Police have charged a husband and wife from Annandale, Va., with conspiracy and theft after determining that they were using counterfeit chips at the Hanover casino. Authorities are looking for two other suspects in a similar, but unrelated, case. According to police, Rosa A. Nguyen, 36, purchased $150,000 worth of counterfeit casino chips — which had been altered to appear to be Maryland Live chips — over the Internet for $12,000.

Maryland State Police warn: beware of fake Apples. In a raid last week at Arundel Mills in Hanover, police confiscated hundreds of counterfeit Apple products being sold at the Cyberion store and the ST Tech Pros kiosk, according to state police. The haul, valued at more than $89,000, included bogus iPhones and parts, iPad replacement screens and fake Apple product ID stickers. Police are warning consumers to beware of what they're buying, and will present the results of their investigation to the Anne Arundel County State's Attorney for consideration of possible charges in the case.

Baltimore County police seized $1.5 million worth of counterfeit merchandise after a raid at a Dundalk flea market last month, the department announced Wednesday. Charges are pending against 19 people who rent space in the market, not the flea market owners, police said. The vendors have not been identified. Officers raided the North Point Plaza Flea Market on Old North Point Boulevard on Feb. 16, taking more than 4,000 pairs of shoes and 3,500 phone accessories along with pirated movies and music and clothing items.

As regulars perused handmade jewelry, discounted bedsheets, slightly-worn stuffed animals and other knick-knacks, dozens of Baltimore County police officers swarmed into a bustling Dundalk flea market Saturday morning to bust vendors allegedly selling counterfeit merchandise. What appeared to be fleece North Face jackets, UGG Boots, DVDs and CDs were seized by officers serving search warrants on 16 vendors at the Plaza Flea Market on Old North Point Boulevard. “They just came running in here and told people to put the stuff down.

Federal agents in Baltimore seized 36 commercial websites on Monday as part of an international operation to stop fraudulent online sales this holiday season, alleging that the sites have been selling counterfeit goods — including athletic gear bearing the copyrighted logos of pro sports teams. Dubbed "Operation Cyber Monday 3," the international effort involved law enforcement agencies from across the United States and Europe, and seized a total of 101 website domains that allegedly sold counterfeit sports gear, jewelry, shoes, movies and other items copyrighted by brand-name companies.

Federal agents in Baltimore helped lead an operation that this week seized and shut down nearly 700 U.S.-based websites linked to the sale of counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs as part of an international effort to upend the global online drug trade. The local operation, known as Bitter Pill, was part of an international initiative led by Interpol that spanned 100 countries and confiscated 3.7 million doses of counterfeit medications worth an estimated $10.5 million, according to federal officials.

Investigators who searched the home of a maintenance worker accused of using toll collectors to launder counterfeit money found a loaded shotgun, rounds of ammunition and receipts showing small purchases made with $20 bills as payment, according to a charging document. But detectives who executed a search warrant on the Baltimore home of Kennan F. Ray on Saturday found no equipment used in counterfeiting, such as laser printers, computers or scanners. District Court records show that Ray, 43, of the first block of Stonecroft Road was charged Tuesday by Maryland Transportation Authority Police with counterfeiting and using counterfeit bills.

When a guest at a Linthicum hotel tried to pay his bill Tuesday with counterfeit money, the innkeeper called Anne Arundel County police. Officers arrived shortly before noon at the Red Roof Inn, in the 800 block of Elkridge Landing Road and located the suspect on the parking lot. The smell of marijuana led officers to search the vehicle. Diarra Scott, 37, of Mount De Sales Road in western Baltimore County, was charged with drug distribution and related charges. During the search of the suspect's car, officers located more than a pound of marijuana packaged for sale and distribution and seized it along with $2,448 in U.S. currency and $640 in counterfeit currency.

Last month's raid on the Patapsco Flea Market in Southwest Baltimore netted $47.3 million worth of counterfeit luxury goods, the largest seizure at a flea market in the United States, federal authorities announced Thursday. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations also confiscated $1.5 million in cash, which it described as "suspected criminal proceeds. " Federal officials released new details of the April 22 raid on the bazaar, where authorities say vendors sold counterfeit and pirated goods with the market owner's knowledge.