Post Description

The Secret Service was created to safeguard the United States Currency. It also protects the President and other officials. Nat Geo looks inside the agency. 

Before 9/11 the Secret Service was under the umbrella of the Department of the Treasury. It has since been moved to the Department of Homeland Security. When it was created in 1865 its official business was to catch and stop counterfeiters. In 1913 the agency broadened its duties to protect the President of the United States. In 1917 the president?s family was placed under the care of the Secret Service. Through the years those under the protection of the Secret Service widened, yet the main duty of the Service was to protect the currency. In 2002 it was placed under the newly formed Department of Homeland Security.


Battlefront Colombia

This episode of Secret Service Files focuses on counterfeiters in Colombia and shows the way the agents receive information and hunt down counterfeiters. Most people are unaware how important it is to safeguard the country’s currency. Up to $100,000 in counterfeit money is seized by the Miami Field office in a week.

In Bogotá, Columbia, which is the cocaine capitol of the world, it is also the epicenter of world-wide counterfeiting, not just of American currency but of currency from other countries as well.