Through a press release, agents of the Bureau for Financial Investigations and the Fight against Illicit Trafficking (Bitis) of the Customs Investigations Directorate announced that they had arrested 3 individuals who were holding black notes worth 2 dollars in value billions of CFA francs in Thiès.

Three individuals arrested in Thiès held black bills consisting of 200, 100 and 50 euro notes neatly arranged in 3 packages protected by adhesive tape. According to the Bitis press release, initial elements of the investigation revealed that “the presumed mastermind of the operation living in Mboro had been approached by one of his contacts looking for black bills on behalf of another individual based abroad. He retained the services of the owner of the home where the transaction was going to take place, had it not been for the intervention of the “Bitis agents” in order to satisfy the request.

According to the Directorate General of Customs, the General Directorate of Customs reminds people that counterfeiting and currency violations have “harmful effects on economic stability and are very severely punished by national laws.”