Counterfeiting suspect caught

A suspected counterfeiter was taken into custody Thursday by the Kalispell Police Department and the U.S. Secret Service.

Jeffrey Lawrence Harrell, 36, was arrested at a hotel in Kalispell after two fugitive recovery agents from California asked for help serving a warrant, according to a press release from the Kalispell Police Department.

Harrell was found with materials believed to have been used in counterfeiting. More arrests are expected in the case. He was taken into custody on warrants out of California.

More information was not immediately available from the Kalispell Police Department. Counterfeiting currency is a federal crime.

According to San Diego County Court records, Harrell has been the defendant in nine criminal cases filed since 2010.

A week before the arrest, Flathead County Sheriff’s Det. Commander Brandy Hinzman said local authorities expected a break to come soon in the probe of a recent wave of counterfeit bills making the rounds in Kalispell and Flathead County.

Hinzman said the bills had been circulating for a few weeks. The fakes looked believable and were not getting caught at business turnstiles, but were being flagged by local bank tellers.  

“Most of the time citizens and merchants aren’t catching them,” Hinzman said. “The bank reports it directly to the Secret Service.”

Hinzman added: “By the time it gets to the bank, it’s too late to tell who had it originally.”  

She said the best way to test a bill is to make sure it has an embedded security ribbon running through the bill. People can see the strip when it is held up to the light. All paper U.S. currency, with the exception of $1 bills, has the strips.

“You can see it and can kind of feel it,” Hinzman said.

Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.