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Surabaya. In another red mark against the country’s prison system, Surabaya Police have discovered an inmate has been running a syndicate of counterfeiters from his cell.

Adj. Comr. Anom Wibowo, the Surabaya Police’s chief detective, said on Sunday that Edi Santoso, who has been in Sidoarjo Medaeng Penitentiary since last year, had been controlling his syndicate through his wife, Yayuk Rikalani.

Yayuk is a resident of Brangkal Village, Mojokerjo, and is being hunted by police.

Police made the discovery following the arrest on April 1 of Adi Wiyono, a resident of Jombang, East Java, from whom they seized fake bills with a face value of Rp 40 million.

Police said Adi told them he had gotten the fake bills from Yayuk. He said the bills could be purchased on a “1:3 rate,” meaning Rp 100,000 would buy three fake Rp 100,000 bills.

“Common people will usually not be able to know that it’s fake because the appearance is very similar with real money,” Anom said.

He added that police had been able to detect where the fake bills were being produced.

Last year, Edi was arrested with fake bills with a face value of Rp 11 million, some of the Rp 120 million he had produced at the time.

This is far from the first instance of a convict being undeterred by prison bars when it comes to continuing with criminal activities.

Last month, terrorist Iwan Dharmawan, also known as Rois Abu Syaukat, was found to have had eight cellphones with him while an inmate at Jakarta’s Cipinang Prison, which he had used to communicate with a terrorist network in Aceh.

Last year, Jet Lie Chandra, a death row convict in Pondok Bambu Penitentiary in East Jakarta, was found to have been running a drug-distribution business from behind bars.

The country’s overcrowded prisons, where inmates vastly outnumber prison guards, are known to be plagued by corruption, drug abuse and trafficking, and human rights violations by both guards and inmates.