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87 charged in counterfeit drugs, money, cigarettes
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
MARK SHERMAN
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The guests thought they were headed to an early afternoon wedding on a yacht docked near Atlantic City. Instead, they landed in jail instead, courtesy of an elaborate ruse by federal authorities hoping to bust up an international smuggling ring.

Lengthy undercover investigations on opposite sides of the country resulted in indictments of 87 Asians and U.S. citizens on charges of smuggling counterfeit money, drugs and cigarettes into the United States, law enforcement officials said Monday.

Authorities said they seized $4.4 million in high-quality fake $100 bills, more than 1 billion counterfeit cigarettes worth $42 million, and ecstasy, methamphetamine and Viagra worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Some of the cigarettes were made in China, said acting assistant Attorney General John Richter. The money appeared to have been produced in North Korea, two officials said on condition of anonymity because there are ongoing counterfeiting investigations involving similar phony currency.

Agents also seized $700,000 in fake postage stamps and blue jeans worth several hundred thousand dollars, FBI Deputy Director John Pistole said.

Indictments were unsealed Sunday and Monday in Los Angeles and Newark, N.J. Fifty-nine people were arrested over the weekend in 11 cities in Canada and the United States, including Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

Forty-two of those charged were arrested on their way to the fake wedding, called for 2 p.m. Sunday, off the Jersey coast. Operation Royal Charm was named for the yacht.

The affair was seven months in the making, and the bride and groom were undercover FBI agents who worked with the accused smugglers for years, said Christopher J. Christie, the U.S. attorney in New Jersey.