Two Europeans held for forgery

A sharp eyed employee at Atlantic Bank has exposed what looks like a major scam by a couple of European tourists. Italian Karlheinz Gatscher and his Spanish traveling partner Maria Elena Sanz Rodriguez were attempting to cash some Visa and American Express travelers checks at the bank’s main office on Freetown Road on Monday afternoon, when the alert teller discovered that the checks had been reported stolen about a month ago in Colombia. Police were called in and after detaining the two suspects, who both claim to work as tour guides in Guatemala, proceeded to search their luggage. What they discovered was a cornucopia of suspicious travel documents including engraving plates for Swiss passports, a Curacao arrival stamp, a Belize western border arrival stamp, two Swiss passports, one Spanish passport and one Italian passport, all containing Gatscher’s photograph but under different names, Spanish and Swiss passports for Rodriguez and one blank Swiss passport for good measure. Police are making contact with Interpol and regional police departments to see if the well equipped travelers may be known to law enforcement authorities outside of Belize.