A woman who was trying to smuggle £650,000 of gold bars through Heathrow to India in her hand luggage for organised criminals has had them seized by the National Crime Agency.
The female smuggler was transiting through the airport after arriving on a plane from Singapore and was attempting to take the 15 gold bars on an onward flight to Chennai.
She claimed she was taking transporting the gold for a jeweller in Singapore to another one in India.
But her bars were seized after law enforcers and Border Force staff decided that they were instead being carried on behalf of money laundering network working for organised criminals.
They noted that she had no explanation for her strange routing via London when she could have travelled directly from Singapore to India much quicker and believed that she was instead trying to evade detection by Indian customs officials by disguising her original departure point.
Law enforcers also discovered that the invoices for the gold bars were fake and the jeweller in Chennai did not exist.
The bars have now been forfeited under Proceeds of Crime legislation after a hearing at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court.
NCA Commander Andy Noyes said: “Gold is an attractive commodity for criminals to use to move money because relatively small amounts can have a high value.
“Our investigation pointed to these gold bars belonging to a criminal money laundering network active in both Europe and Asia.
“We think they were attempting to move them through London to try and disguise their routing, and avoid the attentions of Indian law enforcement upon arrival there.
“NCA investigators worked with Indian partners to disprove the story given to officers by the woman carrying the gold bars, and show that on the balance of probabilities they were proceeds of crime.
“Working with partners like Border Force we are determined to do all we can to disrupt the flow of illicit money coming through the UK.”
The woman, who has not been named, was allowed to continue her journey and was not prosecuted.
