With countries such as Venezuela suffering from a devalued currency and the continued strengthening of the U.S. dollar, the market for counterfeiters in Latin America has just gotten a lot more lucrative.

Colombian forgers, widely considered as among the best counterfeiters in the business, have been doubling up their efforts, saturating Latin America with fake banknotes. In an interview with El Tiempo News, Colombian officials have stated that the price of fake money in the black market has increased to such a point that counterfeiters are earning a lot of real money by producing a lot of fake ones.

After all, with the economic situation in Latin American countries such as Venezuela, the prospect of making a profit by producing a currency that has a lot of value is indeed very inviting. Fox News Latino stated that in the Latin American country alone, the price of a basic food basket has increased significantly, from 17,833 bolivars to 21,383 bolivars.

Thus, using Venezuela's official exchange rate and taking the country's inflation into account, the price of a food basket would amount to about $3,400, which is, ironically, about three times the country's minimum wage of 7,421 bolivars.

Such a situation has fuelled an influx of activity in the black market, where everything is purchased through cash. Also, it has led to the proliferation of those who wish to take advantage of an economy that badly needs money with real value.

Colombian police, according to Insight Crime, has stated that a fake $100 bill, which usually sells for about 8,000 to 10,000 pesos (about $2.40 to $3.00), currently sells for about 15,000 to 20,000 pesos (about $4.50 to $6.00). Counterfeiters, therefore, could now earn as much as twice the usual asking price of their fraudulent goods.

Of course, with the counterfeit market booming, known criminal networks that are known to be connected to the counterfeiting business, and who have been quite dormant in the past, have emerged again. A number of these networks previously were displaced to countries such as Peru, Ecuador and Argentina. Now, however, they have slowly crept back to Colombia.

During the last couple of years, the United States central bank has initiated a number of updates to its currency, in order to make it far more difficult for counterfeiters to copy. However, the previous iterations of the popular currency, which are printed without the updated security measures, remain in circulation, providing those in the counterfeiting business with an ideal template with which to base their trade.