Finally...

Big news today. The Secret Service finally made the first big bust in the Novus Ordo Seclorum counterfeiting ring.

Philadelphia, PA (AP) - Following a tip from a nearby business owner, police raided a warehouse in western Philadelphia late Monday night. Although no NOS members were captured during the raid, police found printing equipment and over $1.4 million in counterfeit bills. This is the first major raid since the NOS surfaced in December.

“We saw them coming and going at all hours of the night,” said Ian Roshek, night manager of a restaurant across the street from the warehouse. “They’d come in at three or four in the morning with a couple of pickup trucks and load up. Honestly, I thought they were drug dealers. I had no idea.”

When it became evident what police had found, they contacted the FBI, who notified the Secret Service. Despite the scale of the find, many say it will do little to sway critics of law enforcement’s handing of the counterfeiting.

“You have to put it in perspective,” said Congresswoman Alisa Kent (R-Pennsylvania). “1.4 million is a lot of money, but when you realize that there has already been 350 million dollars—fake dollars—spread into the economy since December, 1.4 doesn’t seem like that much.”

Some experts put the amount much higher. $356 million is the official figure released in a report from the Treasury Department last week, but estimates from the Tremont Institute, a New York-based think tank, put the numbers closer to $500 million.