Guyana Uncovers Gold Smuggling

The customs officers flew to Miami to investigate what looked like a routine customs scam involving used cars and chicken pieces.

Instead, they discovered illegal exports of raw gold equal to a quarter of Guyana’s total annual production. Officials believe the illicit trade is part of a drug money-laundering operation that could involve some of this South American nation’s top businessmen.

Authorities last month began investigating bank accounts in Bolivia, Chile and Colombia that they have linked to Guyanan exporters and the gold-smuggling, said Tony Shields, executive secretary of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association.

Police and miners who spoke on condition of anonymity said buyers carrying suitcases of U.S. dollars travel to gold fields in the western interior and buy raw gold from producers, fly the nuggets to Georgetown, the capital, and hand-carry them on flights to Miami and New York City.

They said the gold was smuggled out of Guyana, where the only agencies permitted to export gold are the state Gold Board and the Canadian-run Omai Gold Mine. But on arrival in the United States, the cargo was declared.