Money laundering worth €18 million in gold bullion: €1 million seized in Kosovo
Milan's Guardia di Finanza has seized assets worth approximately €1 million in Kosovo from two Kosovo citizens resident in Alessandria, as part of an investigation into money laundering of proceeds from French drug trafficking.
Kosovo criminals transformed drug proceeds into gold: €1 million seized in the Balkans
According to reports from Google News IT — Crime (it), financial police from the Milan Provincial Command and the Scico executed an asset seizure worth approximately €1 million directly in Kosovo territory, targeting a transnational criminal organisation specialising in laundering money from French drug trafficking.
The operation is the continuation of a major investigation that in September 2025 had already led to the freezing of assets exceeding €30 million. The investigations were conducted under a mandate from the Milan DDA, with the collaboration of the National Gendarmerie of Marseille and support from the European projects HAPE and Rete @On, under the coordination of Eurojust and Europol.
At the centre of the enquiry are two Kosovo citizens resident in Alessandria province. The two had been arrested last September in France after being stopped in a car: law enforcement officers found more than 50 kilograms of high-quality gold bullion in a hidden compartment in the vehicle. Analysis of the seized documentation and the exchange of information with Kosovo authorities enabled the Guardia di Finanza to identify and freeze the couple's foreign safe deposit box, composed of current accounts, business activities, real estate and luxury vehicles.
Asset investigations brought to light a sophisticated money-laundering mechanism. In just ten months, the organisation had collected at least €18 million in France from drug trafficking. Cash was transported to the Alessandria residence of the two suspects and subsequently converted into gold bullion and gold sheets thanks to the complicity of operators specialising in precious metal smelting active between Lombardy and Piedmont.
The conversion of cash into gold followed precise logic: to make illicit funds difficult to trace and to facilitate the transfer of capital abroad. The shipments were directed not only to Kosovo, but also to Turkey and Morocco.
Source: Google News IT — Crime (it)