French customs officers recently discovered ingots and more than 800 gold coins bearing the image of kings and queens of England during a motorway check carried out near the Swiss border.
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On December 14, officers from the surveillance squad intercepted a vehicle registered in the United Kingdom.
On board the car, which was carrying two people, customs officers got their hands on a real treasure: several gold bars and coins whose value is estimated at more than 600,000 euros.
During the check, the driver, a man aged around 50, said he was coming from Switzerland and wanted to go to Great Britain.
He immediately admitted to carrying cash and presented a bank statement with the amount of cash, bonds and precious metals and raw materials, without details of the quantity transported.
While searching luggage and backpacks, customs officers discovered several batches of envelopes containing four gold bars of one kilo each and 852 gold coins bearing the effigy of George V, Edward VII, Victoria and Elizabeth II.
This is an offense for failure to comply with the obligation to declare cash with a value equal to or greater than 10,000 euros when entering the European Union.
Initially placed in judicial detention, “the two people were released,” said the Mulhouse prosecutor’s office (east).
An investigation was opened to shed light on the origin of the values that were seized.
In 2022, customs intercepted 80.4 million euros for failure to comply with the reporting obligation and money laundering, an increase of 35% in two years.