In light of Madagascar denying entry to all aircraft from South Africa – apparently owing to a dispute over 73.5kg of smuggled gold – we look back at our story about the Midas touch connecting South Africa to global smugglers, terrorists and Dubai’s dubious gold industry.
First published in the Daily Maverick 168 weekly newspaper.
South Africa has surfaced as a key transit point for bullion smugglers wanting to channel the precious metal to and from one of the world’s most prolific players in the gold industry – Dubai.
Piecing together a number of arrests that have led to local police and South African Revenue Service (SARS) investigations, conducted over several years, a picture emerges of just how much of a cog this country has become in illicit gold networks.
Indeed, over five years, five sets of arrests have been carried out at airports in South Africa and have involved travellers, flying either to or from Dubai, intercepted with gold bars.
On 4 January, police announced that three suspects had been arrested days earlier after a security scanner picked up irregular images, presumably of their hand luggage.
“The trio had just flown into South Africa from Madagascar and were en-route to Dubai via Ethiopia last week when they were apprehended,” spokesperson Colonel Athlenda Mathe said.
“Upon questioning of the suspects and further inspection of their hand luggage, officials discovered the gold bars and some foreign currency.”
While police said the gold bars had a street value of about R61-million, they could, based on the value of a kilogram of gold and depending on the quality of the gold, fetch around R67.5-million on the legal market, according to website market charts.