Illegal Colombian gold reached U.S. Mint, Times reports

The New York Times says illegal Colombian gold was laundered through a supply chain and reached the U.S. Mint despite domestic-source rules.

A New York Times investigation says gold from an illegal mine in Colombia was laundered through a supply chain and ultimately reached the U.S. Mint’s facilities in West Point, N.Y., where the government sells gold to buyers as American.

The allegation strikes at a basic safeguard in the federal gold program: the Mint is legally required to sell only legal, domestic gold, according to the Times video summary. The Times reported that instead, the Mint became the final link in a chain that moved foreign gold into a market with heavy demand.

The Times tied the problem to a broader breakdown in industry guardrails as gold prices climb. Its report was framed around one traced supply chain, beginning at an illegal mine in Colombia and ending at the Mint, rather than as a complete accounting of all gold entering federal channels.

Gold is especially vulnerable to laundering because it can be melted, recast and sold into legitimate markets after passing through traders and refiners. The Times account says the chain it followed turned foreign gold into metal that could be marketed through the U.S. Mint despite the domestic-source requirement.

The available source material does not include a detailed response from the Mint, identify any specific enforcement action, or say whether the traced gold remains in circulation. Those gaps matter because the central questions now are whether federal procurement controls failed, who certified the gold as eligible and whether buyers were misled about its origin.

For now, the Times investigation establishes a serious allegation about the integrity of the Mint’s gold supply chain: illegal Colombian gold, described by the outlet as drug-cartel gold, made its way to a U.S. government program meant to sell only lawful American gold. The next test is whether officials disclose how the metal entered the system and what will be done to prevent a repeat.