CERRITOS — A Gahr High School student faces criminal charges and seven others are under investigation for allegedly passing counterfeit $20 bills in the school lunch line last month.
School officials estimated that the counterfeit money cost the ABC Unified School District as much as $1,000.
Francisco Martinez, an 18-year-old senior, faces arraignment Monday on a charge of possessing counterfeit bills, officials said. Investigators have not released the names of the other students because they are younger than 18. The juveniles, all from the Artesia area, have not been charged but could still be prosecuted, said Detective Linda Schermerhorn of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
Authorities have linked the bogus twenties to a counterfeiting operation that has passed about $300,000 worth of fake currency throughout Southern California. But the students are not thought to belong to the larger counterfeiting organization, said David Cahill, a Secret Service administrator. The federal agency has jurisdiction over counterfeiting investigations.
The counterfeit bills came to light at the school March 11 when an alert cafeteria worker noticed 13 suspicious notes in a cash register. She was not sure which students had passed the bills.
Another school employee, however, later told a school security guard of seeing Martinez selling the bills to other students. The security guard confronted Martinez and found two counterfeit bills in his possession, investigators said.
Seven other boys admitted that they passed the bills in the lunch line. Agents said they are not certain how long students had been using the fake currency. The students--one junior and six seniors--told investigators that they bought the bills from Martinez for $5 apiece, Cahill said.
School administrators told agents that some of the students have ties to an Artesia gang, an allegation denied by the students. Investigators said they have no evidence linking the Artesia gang to the larger counterfeiting operation.
"Martinez said that someone gave the notes to him," Schermerhorn said. "He said he thought they were real."
Officers arrested Martinez March 11 on a charge of possessing counterfeit bills. He was released on his own recognizance pending a court appearance scheduled for Monday at the Los Cerritos Municipal Court in Bellflower.
Investigators said the teen-agers probably did not realize how much trouble they could bring on themselves by passing counterfeit money.
