Investigator Stephen Stollar sat at his desk Tuesday poring over an open file containing sheets of what appeared to be $1 bills. To the average viewer, the money seemed to have all the elements of a standard $1 bill, but according to Stollar the weight of the paper alone was enough to deem it counterfeit.

“The paper has a different feel, some are too thick to be real,” Stollar said. “And the security strip isn’t in it.”

Though Stollar easily identified the bills as fakes, he said they were still accepted at a number of locations in Carrollton, Villa Rica and Bremen.

“There’s no telling how many have been passed,” Stollar said.

But such counterfeit reports from unincorporated areas of the county have slowed, Stollar said, since two Carrollton residents were arrested Jan. 5 for mass producing the bills.

According to Stollar, an investigation from a previous arrest along with information from the West Georgia Metro Drug Enforcement Task Force led investigators to a Carrollton home containing nearly $3,000 in counterfeit bills.

The Blandenburg Road residence belonged to Adam Craig Anglin, 28, who allegedly partnered with Tiffanee Cook, 36, to produce the fake money. The pair started working together as early as October, according to Stollar.

“We recovered a computer, printer, cell phones and sheets of $50, $20, $10, $5 and $1 bills,” Stollar said.

Trays of Downy fabric softener and specially ordered paper were also recovered which, according to Stollar, were the key ingredients for producing the bills.

“They were printing them and softening them in Downy,” Stollar said. “The bills obviously didn’t have the strip, but when they were still moist they passed the pin test.”

The “pin test” is one of the most common techniques cashiers use to check the validity of paper money.

“It’s very satisfying to run across a group like this who was obviously mass producing the bills,” Capt. Shane Taylor said. “In 15 years this is the largest case we’ve had.”

Investigators believe the case was drug-related, according to Taylor.

“Based on the investigation, Anglin was most likely in this to support his drug habit,” Taylor said.

Investigators believe another man, 23-year-old Michael Shane Johnson was also involved with Anglin and Cook.

He was charged with possession of a counterfeit bill along with a list of other charges pertaining to his alleged physical aggression toward officers during his arrest.

The last counterfeit incident reported to the Sheriff’s Office was on Jan. 6, Stollar said, when Johnson passed a bill allegedly produced by Anglin and Cook.

However, Carrollton’s flow of counterfeit money did not stop with the Jan. 5 arrest, according to Capt. Chris Dobbs.

“We’ve seen a huge increase,” Dobbs said. “We’re working to figure out where they are coming from. We have talked with Carroll County and discussed a lot of their cases.”

On Tuesday, Dobbs said he contacted Stollar about Anglin and Cook which was why Stollar had the file open on his desk.

Anglin and Cook were charged with 10 counts of forgery to the second degree and the two could be indicted on additional charges.