When the moneymen wanted to test the quality of the new currency, they planned to try their luck in Las Vegas.

Millions of tourists know that if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. And that's just what they had in mind.

Their talk of taking a Vegas vacation is an intriguing detail of an important ongoing counterfeiting case with international implications that stretch from Los Angeles all the way to North Korea.

The case serves as a reminder that, despite our efforts to isolate ourselves in a cocoon of comfort and denial, at any moment the world can become a small and dangerous place.

Now not only do Vegas casinos have to worry about competition from American Indian reservation gambling halls and state lotteries, but from crafty international counterfeiters as well. Knowing that, you'll increasingly find them focusing on new technology to detect counterfeit cash before it makes it into the system.

As you'll see, casino security officials have their work cut out for them.

If you've read much at all about North Korea recently, it's probably a story about the communist nation's nutty Elvis impersonator of a leader, Kim Jong Il, and his threat to develop nuclear weapons. With his big hairdo and elevator shoes, he's grist for Leno and Letterman. Although he's a serious kook, the greatest immediate threat his nation poses to ours emanates from a much less publicized source: counterfeit money.

They call them "supernotes," $100 bills so authentic looking that even people who work with cash every day have trouble telling them from the real thing, and they represent a substantial part of North Korea's illicit economy. North Korea's expertise at printing the fake cash, in fact, is said to be a major reason for the many changes made to the $100 bill.

The supernotes case, although not substantially tied to Las Vegas, illustrates a challenge at many levels not only to law enforcement, but also to the casino corporations and other cash-oriented businesses. Counterfeiting is no longer a crime committed by crude practitioners or half-clever criminals with high-tech copy machines. I am told the supernotes are so good, that in a different world, the printers could probably get work producing them at the U.S. Mint. Call it the ultimate outsourcing.

Officials allege North Korea has generated as much as $200 million annually in supernotes and has worked with international organized crime groups to move the fake bills all over the world. Profits from the counterfeit currency represent a substantial percentage of North Korea's economy, one of the poorest in the world.

What is North Korea doing with the profits it derives from the supernotes and its increasingly obvious narcotics trafficking?

Not buying rice for millions of starving peasants, but instead feeding its outlaw nuclear program and adding to its military power, according to experts.

The FBI investigation into the spread of the supernotes earlier this year led to arrests in several U.S. cities. Key characters in the case are alleged to have ominous ties to Asian organized crime and drug, guns and cigarette trafficking.

While some of the cash generated wound up back in North Korea, there's evidence that terrorist organizations continue to make use of the underground trafficking network. Whether it's drugs or phony money, proceeds are fueling international organizations bent on harming the United States and upsetting governments around the world.

High-level counterfeiting has come a long way.

Among those indicted in the supernotes case is Chao Tung Wu, a Taiwanese national accused of agreeing to move counterfeit currency. Wu has pleaded not guilty.

The indictment alleges Wu told an FBI undercover agent he could supply $1 million in supernotes for pennies on the dollar. It was during the investigation, sources say, that the agent learned of the North Korean connection and the planned Las Vegas trip to test the quality of the cash.

After being provided with samples of the bills, government specialists were said to be astonished at the quality -- so much so, in fact, they couldn't tell the difference.

The supernotes investigation is already paying authentic dividends in the form of an increased understanding of the flow of the world's underground economy. That's important.

The stakes have never been higher.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0295.