US Mint Buys Gold Linked to Cartels, NYT Investigation Finds

New York — The United States Mint is purchasing gold that originates from illegal mining operations controlled by criminal organizations, including Colombia’s Clan del Golfo, and then selling it as official American coins, according to an investigation by The New York Times.

The report, published Monday, traces a supply chain that begins in Latin American territories where armed groups extract gold outside the law. The metal passes through intermediaries who “legalize” it with falsified documentation, then reaches refineries where it is mixed with gold from other sources, erasing any trace of its illicit origin.

From there, the refined gold enters the US Mint’s procurement system. The Mint buys the processed metal without requiring strict provenance checks, allowing material linked to organized crime to back official coins marketed as “100% American.”

The investigation cites specific cases: gold from pawnshops in Mexico and Peru, from mines in Africa tied to foreign interests, and from operations in Honduras that involved the removal of an Indigenous cemetery. All of it ended up in the same refining circuit and ultimately in US Mint products.

The practice appears to violate the spirit — and possibly the letter — of a 1985 US law that prohibits the use of foreign gold in official bullion to prevent such abuses. Despite internal audits and warnings over the years, authorities allowed the system to continue without substantive changes. In practice, refining gold within the United States is enough for it to be considered American, regardless of its true origin.

The findings directly undercut Washington’s security narrative. While the US government accuses, sanctions, and pressures other countries over their ties to drug trafficking, its own market absorbs resources generated by those same criminal networks.

After the Times published its findings, officials announced a review of procurement processes but have not yet implemented concrete measures. The investigation suggests the problem is not an isolated error but a systemic model that transforms illegal gold into a legitimate asset under the US government’s seal, exposing a double standard that bolsters Washington’s rhetoric while contradicting its actions.