By Bank of Canada ……
L to R: Richard Wall, Managing Director of Currency Department; Sgt. Marco Roy and Cpl. Vincent Roy, officers, RCMP-C Division; Mario Harel, President, Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police; Gilles Michaud, Deputy Commissioner, Federal Policing, RCMP; and Bill Blair, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. (Photo courtesy CNW Group/Bank of Canada)
The Bank of Canada today presented the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s (RCMP) Integrated Counterfeit Enforcement Team (ICET), C Division (Quebec), with the 2017 Law Enforcement Award of Excellence for Counterfeit Deterrence.
This award, which has been presented annually since 2004, recognizes the outstanding achievements of criminal justice professionals and educators involved in the prevention and deterrence of bank note counterfeiting in Canada.
This year’s recipients worked tirelessly for two years to dismantle a ring of counterfeiters who were producing and passing fake $100 bank notes through the Montréal, Québec and Montérégie areas. Dubbed “Projet COUPON”, their investigation fostered close collaboration between the RCMP’s ICET investigators and other Quebec police forces. Their diligent teamwork led to three arrests, the dismantling of four counterfeiting labs and the seizure of almost 4,200 counterfeit notes valued in excess of $400,000 CAD. Overall, it is estimated that this ring of counterfeiters introduced more than 9,600 fake bank notes into circulation, defrauding businesses and individuals of almost $1 million.
Richard Wall, Managing Director of the Currency Department of the Bank of Canada, applauded the RCMP team for their role in shutting down the operation.
“Through their determination, commitment and sound investigative techniques, members of the RCMP’s Integrated Counterfeit Enforcement Team protected our currency, ensuring that Canadians can continue to use bank notes with confidence,” he said in presenting the award.
Sergeant Marco Roy and Corporal Vincent Roy received the award on behalf of the ICET at the Annual Conference of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police in Montréal, Quebec.
