This South American country is now thought to be the world's top producer of counterfeit greenbacks. Some 17 percent of the false bills circulating in the United States come from Peru, one US law enforcement official told GlobalPost.

Peruvian crooks aren't just churning out vast numbers of phony $20, $50 and $100 bills: They are also making much higher quality fakes than the false dollars produced within the US.

One of the reasons is technology. The counterfeiting gangs here use offset printers rather than photocopiers. But Peru is also home to some of the world's most skilled counterfeiters, who employ painstaking, traditional techniques to give their bills apparent authenticity.

"They are specialists in giving it the tonality, texture, the watermark. Each of these bills goes through a rigorous process," says Col. Segundo Portocarrero, head of the Peruvian police's anti-fraud unit.

As he talks, Portocarrero illustrates how the gangs use a needle to pierce the bills and pull through a fake metal security thread, an extremely delicate, time-consuming task that only the steadiest, most skilled hands can pull off.

Laid out on his desk in front of him are sheets of uncut $100, 50 euro and 100 Peruvian sol bills, as well as the transparent film used in the printing process, with columns of Benjamin Franklin's unmistakable gaze outlined on the plastic.

"An organization that has someone who knows how to print will not limit themselves to just US dollars. They will also fake other currencies," says Special Agent Ed Lowery, who has been heading up the US Secret Service's collaboration with Peruvian law enforcement on the issue.

Since the start of 2010, police here have arrested 296 people in connection with producing fake money and broken up seven different counterfeiting gangs.

To read the complete article, see:Peru: Counterfeit currency king(www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/130524/peru-counterfeit-currency-king)