ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. — The St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office announced a major counterfeit ID and money bust on Thursday morning.
Sheriff Ken Mascara said a housekeeper at the Hilton Garden Inn, located at 8540 Commerce Centre Dr., went to clean a hotel room on July 23 and found a computer, printing equipment, and paper supplies that investigators said were consistent with a counterfeit operation.
The sheriff said detectives located a second printer in the room that was used to make fake IDs, and on one of the printers was a sheet of counterfeit money.
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"If you see something, say something," Sheriff Mascara said at a news conference on Thursday. "The housekeeper noticed there was something wrong with this picture."
The sheriff said the room was rented to someone named Jessica Guzman, which investigators believed was a stolen identity.
Sheriff Mascara said the search of a second hotel room turned up drug paraphernalia, methamphetamine, and a CO2 pellet gun.
Investigators identified the occupants of the rooms as 30-year-old Christopher Tucker Bertany, 40-year-old Jesse David Delay, and 20-year-old Sierra Rae Jackson.
Sheriff Mascara said detectives in the parking lot of the hotel saw the suspects arrive, and detained and questioned them.
According to the sheriff, Bertany admitted to printing between $3,000 and $4,000 in counterfeit money and passing more than $1,000 of it in St. Lucie County alone.
"These counterfeits were very, very sophisticated and in fact were not detected by the standard counterfeit pen that most merchants use," Sheriff Mascara said.
Investigators said Bertany admitted to using the counterfeit money to buy items, and then he returned those items for real currency.
"Working with our law enforcement partners throughout the Treasure Coast and across Florida, we have identified several other counterfeit cases believed to be connected to these three," Sheriff Mascara said.
The sheriff added Delay and Jackson occupied the hotel room next to Bertany and admitted to renting the room under a fake name, but they denied having any knowledge of the counterfeit money. It's believed the suspects arrived in St. Lucie County on July 19.
Bertany is now facing charges of fraud, possession of tools for forgery/counterfeiting, possession of counterfeited money, and driving with a suspended license.
Delay and Jackson are facing charges of possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug equipment.
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