U.S. authorities in Puerto Rico have confiscated 11 gold bars sent by mail from Curacao, officials said Tuesday. Investigators are now probing whether the seized gold is from a recent heist on the Dutch Caribbean Island.
The gold bars were found in several courier packages at an airport in the Puerto Rican town of Aguadilla, said Jeffrey Quinones, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The bars weighed nearly 77 pounds and have an estimated value of US$1.7 million, said a report in the Miami Herald.
Inspectors noted that the packages that arrived in mid-December were “unusually heavy,” and flagged them for inspection before confiscating the bars as suspected contraband, Quinones said in a statement.
According to a local source, the gold is part of the stolen shipment in Curacao.
The source said that investigators are now learning that some of the gold had been shipped to Puerto Rico earlier.
The success of this shipment led to the shipping by FedEx of the larger shipment that was intercepted in the United States.
Curacao police spokesman Reginald Huggins said authorities there have six suspects in custody in the theft and have recovered some of the gold, though he declined to say how much. He said he was unaware of the seizure in Puerto Rico.
