DERRY — A Derry man has been indicted on charges of manufacturing counterfeit $100 bills and passing them at local stores, including ones in Methuen and Haverhill, Mass. William McCarthy of Silvestri Circle was indicted Wednesday in U.S. District Court on counterfeiting charges.

The Secret Service began investigating a man, later identified as McCarthy, on March 31, when police recovered video footage of him from a Taco Bell in Haverhill passing a fake $50 bill.

On April 15, store workers at Old Navy and Borders at The Loop in Methuen reported to police they were given counterfeit $100 bills, according to a federal affidavit by Secret Service Agent Brian Coffee.

Methuen police identified McCarthy as being the same person who passed the bills at the Old Navy and Borders, Coffee wrote.

Court records show McCarthy already has a history of using counterfeit bills. He was convicted in U.S. District Court in 2001 for uttering counterfeit currency.

Secret Service agents put McCarthy under surveillance outside his Derry apartment on April 23. They followed him as he left his apartment and went to two stores in Manchester with a woman who tried to pass fake bills as well, the affidavit said. Manchester police pulled over McCarthy and the woman once investigators confirmed she passed a fake bill at one of the stores.

On April 24, Derry police executed a search warrant at his house at 4:30 a.m., and seized computers, printers, scanners and other equipment they believed was used to make the fake money, according to Coffee.

McCarthy has been held without bail since his arrest on April 29.