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The 104-kilogram gold was shipped to Switzerland from the Cayman Islands when it was seized on June 1. No arrests have been made, the police said.
The United Kingdom's National Crime Agency (NCA) – a government law enforcement organization – said the gold would have originated in Venezuela, from where it was reportedly transported to the United States. Cayman Islands by a private jet.
On the basis of information provided by the NCA, border force officers at Heathrow Airport then intercepted the package upon arrival in the United Kingdom.
"We believe this cargo was linked to drug cartels operating in South America," said Steve McIntyre, NCA's Heathrow branch commander, in a statement. "By working with partners abroad and in the UK, we were able to quickly identify it and stop its evolution.
"The economic model of many organized crime groups relies on the ability to transfer money from one country to another, in order to fund other investments in criminal activities.
"If we can prevent this not only disrupting the criminal network involved and preventing it from profiting from the crime, it also prevents that reinvestment."
Nick Jariwalla, director of the Heathrow Border Force, added that removing large sums of money or gold from the control of criminal networks "strikes them where they feel most, in the pocket" .
"It was a substantial seizure and showed how much the Border Force was working with its law enforcement partners, at home and abroad, to fight the problem." organized crime, "he said.
Lynne Owens, Executive Director of the NCA, praised the work of both teams and said that this represented "further progress" in the fight to ensure that the UK is no longer used as a "gateway to illicit finance ".
"Excellent work from our international network and others supported by Border Force," she wrote on Twitter.
While gold was seized last month, a recent hearing before the Uxbridge Court of First Instance in London allowed it to be formally held under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Gold will now be part of an international money laundering investigation conducted by the Caymanian authorities, with the support of the NCA.
The NCA and the Heathrow Border Force have already discovered significant means of transport related to international drug trafficking from South America.
In 2017, a Heathrow security officer was accused of attempting to import cocaine into the UK for up to £ 480,000 ($ 600,120) from the United States. South America.
The worker was on sick leave when he went to the airport in his uniform and met a Colombian drug smuggler in the airport restroom, where he was later arrested by the police, said the NCA.
He was then sentenced to 13 years in prison.
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