Looks like golden skullduggery in Southern Africa

 

Two stories are making headlines around the world, although US news media appear to be largely ignoring them.

First, Al Jazeera (which is an excellent source of world news except for its coverage of Israel and the Middle East, where its regional and religious bias shows) has uncovered what it calls a "Gold Mafia".

An investigation by Al Jazeera has revealed some of Southern Africa’s largest gold-smuggling operations, exposing how these gangs help criminals around the world launder billions of dollars while aiding governments in circumventing international sanctions.

Gold Mafia, a four-part series by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit (I-Unit) based on dozens of undercover operations spanning three continents, and thousands of documents, also shows how government officials and businesspeople are profiting off the illegal movement of gold across borders.

The investigation reveals how billions of dollars’ worth of gold is smuggled every month from Zimbabwe to Dubai, allowing criminals to whitewash dirty money through a web of shell companies, fake invoices and paid-off officials.

The investigation also shows how Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government is systematically using gold smugglers to get around the chokehold of Western sanctions imposed on the country. The money laundering and gold-smuggling schemes involve one of Zimbabwe’s most influential diplomats, and go all the way up to the president and his circle.

The smugglers include millionaires, one of whom was accused of almost bankrupting Kenya through a similar, corrupt scheme also involving gold.

There's more at the link.  South Africa is said to be investigating possible links to the matter.

Next, the BBC reports on a mysterious aircraft that landed in Lusaka, Zambia, bearing millions of dollars in cash and "fake gold".

Everyone knows the aircraft flew from the Egyptian capital, Cairo, and landed a fortnight ago in Zambia, but that is where the certainties stop. So far nobody in Egypt or Zambia admits to chartering the plane or owning its contents ... [Zambian police documents] reportedly named three Egyptian military officers and a senior police officer among those arrested ...

. . .

Several of the officers who entered the plane are now being investigated for allegedly receiving up to $200,000 each from the Egyptian nationals aboard the plane. It is claimed this was their reward for allowing the plane to take off without arresting anyone.

When word somehow got out that wads of money on the plane were allegedly changing hands, another group of security staff charged on to the aircraft and arrested those inside.

Presumably the suspects had trouble explaining what they were doing with millions of dollars in cash, several pistols, 126 rounds of ammunition and what looked like more than 100kg of gold bars.

The gold bars were particularly puzzling.

It turned out that, as well as gold, they were made from a mixture of copper, nickel, tin and zinc. All that glitters is clearly not gold.

. . .

The Zambian lawyer acting for one of the 10 arrested men said another mystery was why the security forces seemed so bad at maths.

Makebi Zulu told the BBC that at first police said they had found $11m in cash. This, he went on, was later downgraded to around $7m before finally settling on the sum of $5.7m.

Again, more at the link.

A few thoughts on the case, based on my very extensive knowledge of Africa in general:

• Nobody admits to chartering the plane or owning its contents?  Say it ain't so!  The big money men behind this have all ducked for cover, and are letting "lesser people" take the blame.  Don't expect that to change.
• "another group of security staff charged on to the aircraft" - to make sure they weren't left out of the deal, perhaps?  As for arresting the first group, that's probably a "Share - or else!" gambit.
• $11 million at first, then $7 million, and finally $5.7 million?  I'm willing to bet the first figure was a lot more accurate than the subsequent two - at least, until light-fingered officials got their hands on the money.  I wonder how many Zambian politicians, bureaucrats, police officers and criminals shared the "missing" $5.3 million?

A writer could have a lot of fun following up on both of these news reports, and taking notes about the details.  If you see a future novel (or series of novels) from me about a similar theme, set in space perhaps, don't be surprised.  That's how my "Cochrane's Company" SF series began:  making accidental, unplanned contact with a "heavy" who was fairly unmistakably involved with the Albanian mafia.  The entire trilogy popped into my mind as my wife and I drove home after that incident.

(Of course, the use of gold to disguise payments and launder money to and from other parts of the world is nothing new in Southern Africa.  The international arms embargo against South Africa from the late 1970's to the early 1990's was rendered largely toothless by that country's willingness to pay for what it needed in gold or any hard currency the seller desired, swapping gold for currency whenever necessary through Middle Eastern exchanges.  At the time South Africa was by far the world's largest gold producer, so the yellow metal was readily available for the purpose, and the untraceable Krugerrand dominated the international gold coin market.  There were parts of the world where South African gold purchased all sorts of difficulties for that country's enemies.  Gold speaks a universal language that's readily understood.)

I can feel another book coming on . . .

Peter