A federal and local crackdown on "high impact" criminals last week mostly netted alleged gun and drug dealers - but also a Dorchester man charged with selling counterfeit $100 bills for $30 apiece.

Franklin Perry, 52, got swept up in a Secret Service investigation into a wave of fake bills unleashed in the Boston area for the past several months - made with actual currency paper that can defeat the scanners many stores use because they have the security features real bills have. According to an affidavit by a Secret Service agent assigned to the case that led to Perry's arraignment in US District Court in Boston:

"These counterfeit notes are manufactured using a process that entails bleaching the ink of genuine $ and $5 Federal Reserve Notes and re-printing counterfeit images of $100 bills. This process preserves the security features of genuine currency to include red and blue synthetic fibers and watermarks. The resulting notes are unable to be detected by commercially available counterfeit detection pens used widely by retail establishments to identify counterfeit money. The estimated loss in the Boston area resulting from these notes is in excess of $300,000."

Perry was collared with the help of a "confidential human source," who himself has a criminal background that includes counterfeiting (as well as armed robbery and murder), and who has known Perry for 35 years - they were even co-defendants in a 1987 armed-robbery case in Norfolk County: "CHS told agents that from his interactions with Perry he knew Perry to be involved in the making of selling of (sic) counterfeit currency since 2008 and was currently back at it."

On June 27, the affidavit continues, the informant was given $300 to buy $1,000 worth of fake $100 bills from Perry - in a deal outside Perry's cousin's house on Bullard Street in Dorchester. The informant, was, of course, fully wired up, and after handing over the real money for the fake bills:

"CHS also stated he was waiting on 'Giz' to get money, stating, 'I need money, too.' According to CHS, 'Giz' is known to drive Perry to pick up supplies for manufacturing his counterfeit notes, because Perry has a suspended driver's license and does not have a vehicle."

The agent adds: "I have examined the ten $100 notes Perry sold to CHS, and based on my training and experience determined that they are counterfeit. The serial numbers on the counterfeit $100 bills Perry sold to CHS, KJ30744345A and B02668896A, have an extensive history of appearing on counterfeit bills passed in the Boston area. KJ30744345A has a history dating back to November 2015 with over 150 passes at retail stores, and B02668896A has a history dataing back to January 2014 with over 500 passes at retail stores."