Two more suspects arrested in counterfeit ring

TAMPA -- Authorities arrested three more suspects in a counterfeit check cashing ring that investigators say cost Florida banks millions of dollars.

Maurice Jackson, 32, Darris Washington, 28, and Tony K. Grooms, 47, all of Tampa, were charged with racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering. The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office had already arrested nine people in the case. They expect a second phase of arrests in the next couple of weeks.

In October, the sheriff's office announced its two-year investigation into the ring, in which there are about 100 suspects. To learn more about the case, read the Times' previous coverage here.

Authorities say the scheme worked like this:

Thieves would steal mail from U.S. Postal Service mailboxes in business parks, looking for checks mailed by businesses.

Ringleaders would quickly copy those checks so they could mass-produce them with proper account numbers. They would then return the original check to the mailbox so neither the sender nor receiver had any idea the check had been intercepted and copied.

Using the copies, ringleaders would create fake payroll checks from that business to a bogus employee. They would also create fake identification cards for the same "employee.''

They would then enlist drug addicts, homeless people or other "runners'' who would agree to pose as phony employees and cash the payroll checks. Ringleaders would take the runners to a bank and wait outside to collect the money. The runner kept only a small portion, sheriff's officials said.

The checks might total as much as $3,000 and the counterfeiters might hit five bank branches in one day.

--Stephanie Garry and Stephen Nohlgren, Times Staff Writers