Two More Indicted In Counterfeiting Case Colombia Operation Linked To Killing Of Local Man

Two new indictments were filed Friday in an expanding investigation of a counterfeit money and drug-smuggling ring tied to a gangland-style killing in the Spokane Valley.

The ring washes ink off $1 bills, then reprints them as $100 notes before smuggling them from Colombia to Spokane.

Federal investigators aren’t sure how much of the counterfeit money has been successfully smuggled in, but they’ve seized $102,000.

As part of the scheme, those involved bought money orders with the counterfeit money, then redeemed the orders for authentic bills.

Nakia Shane Burland, 25, of Spokane, and a man who hasn’t been arrested are named in the newest indictment returned by a grand jury.

Both are charged with conspiracy to import counterfeit U.S. currency.

So far, a half-dozen people have been indicted in the scheme.

“We have a significant, ongoing investigation,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Earl Hicks said Friday.

No additional counterfeit money has been seized, beyond the $102,000 grabbed last year in Spokane and Las Vegas.

The newest suspects to be indicted came to light as the result of leads developed by sheriff’s detectives investigating the killing of Jason Schulwitz, Hicks said.

Schulwitz, considered one of the ringleaders of the money smuggling ring, was found dead last month.

The 27-year-old Spokane Valley man was about to be indicted when his body was found stuffed head-first into a brown garbage can in the back of a Ford Expedition.

The vehicle was parked in a lot at a store where another co-defendant, Debra Banka, worked.

The killing of a suspected ringleader has many of those involved and their associates living in a climate of fear and threats, investigators say.

Agents of the U.S. Secret Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration and Spokane County sheriff’s detectives are working jointly on the investigation.

The investigation is looking not only at smuggling of counterfeit money but importation and distribution of cocaine and money laundering, Hicks said.

No drug or money-laundering charges have been filed.

A federal grand jury, which met in secret session for three days this week, is being used to assist investigators.

People subpoenaed before the grand jury can be compelled to testify.

Those subpoenaed usually aren’t targets of the investigation but can include those convicted of related crimes.

The new indictment doesn’t provide additional details of the smuggling ring, but says it operated from January through May of last year.

Burland and two other men, including someone identified only as “Tony” or “Hugo,” conspired with Schulwitz to smuggle the money from Colombia to Spokane, the indictment says.

The Secret Service has been chasing the source of the Colombian-printed bills for a decade.

The bills are of “exceptionally high quality,” investigators say.