PARIS – A Greenwood woman and a Norway man are in Oxford County jail awaiting arraignment on charges of passing fake $100 bills at two different fast food restaurants, police said Wednesday.

Jeremy R. Minnerly, 19, of 17 Everett Drive in Norway and Alexandra J. Harris, 22 of Greenwood were arrested Wednesday and Tuesday, respectively, Paris police Lt. Mike Dailey said. Harris listed her address as a post office box in Greenwood on an arrest booking form.

The arrests are part of an ongoing investigation involving the Paris Police Department and the Portland office of the U.S. Secret Service, according to Dailey.

The Secret Service, which is responsible for investigating forgeries of U.S. currency, was notified of the fake bills by local banks that received them in deposits from the McDonald’s and Burger King restaurants on Main Street in Paris, Dailey said.

Minnerly passed a bill at McDonald’s in Paris and Harris passed one at Burger King, according to police.

Clerks at the restaurants were able to link the bills to the suspects, Dailey said. The bills were relatively poor copies of the same $100 bill and one of the newest versions of the note issued by the U.S. Treasury.

“I wouldn’t call them high-quality reproductions,” Dailey said.

At least four phony bills were passed in local businesses, including the two restaurants, a convenience store in Bryant Pond and the Mini Apple in Paris, Dailey said.

“We are working on at least three other cases involving the same denominations,” Dailey said. He said it was uncertain at this point whether the cases were all linked. Only the bills passed at the restaurants could be directly linked to Minnerly and Harris, Dailey said.

There may be more suspects involved and more arrests to come, he said. It is unclear whether Minnerly and Harris were working together, Dailey said. “But I do think they know each other,” he said. “We think there are definitely more people involved.”

It is believed the bills were passed over the weekend and were discovered relatively quickly, he said.

Harris was charged with two counts of aggravated forgery and was also being held for unpaid fines stemming from an operating after suspension charge, according to arrest documents at the jail. She was being held on $60 cash bail for the unpaid fines and $20,000 cash bail or $60,000 worth of real estate on the forgery charges.

According to arrest documents, Harris is unemployed and listed the 11th grade as her highest level of education obtained.

Minnerly is charged with one count of aggravated forgery and was being held on $10,000 cash bail. He listed the eighth grade as his highest level of education obtained.

Dailey credited the banks for picking up on the fake bills. “They have protocols, followed them and did what they were supposed to do (in notifying the Secret Service),” he said. “I think we put a dent in whatever operation they had going on, and hopefully people will be paying closer attention.”

Both suspects were expected to be arraigned in District Court in Paris today, Dailey said.

Staff writer M. Dirk Langeveld contributed to this report.