Swiss pair charged with laundering 830 kg of gold

Two Swiss men were charged Thursday with laundering around 830 kilograms of gold and millions of euros -- assets allegedly acquired through a vast drug smuggling operation across Europe.

The two men, aged 63 and 56, are accused by state prosecutors of having been given the money -- 34 million euros ($36.75 million) and a million Swiss francs ($1.15 million) -- by persons unknown to them during trips to Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.

The two men primarily exchanged the cash for gold in Italy, said the Office of the Attorney General, before bringing it into Switzerland without declaring it.

The two men are accused of "having moved assets acquired by criminal means... across borders for at least four years as part of an internationally-operating criminal network", said the OAG.

The men were arrested in June 2023, with 10 suspected members of the network arrested in total.

"The accused transported the money in specially-constructed hiding places in their vehicles," said the OAG.

"The 63-year-old accused carried out most of the trips on behalf of his younger partner. After a stopover at the 56-year-old accused's companies in Switzerland, the assets were again moved across borders by the two accused by plane, namely to Istanbul or Dubai, or by car and lorry to Germany and Turkey."

The indictment said the assets were the proceed of organized international narcotics smuggling activities and large-scale trafficking in narcotic drugs in Europe.

"The two accused were aware of this or at least suspected it, therefore knowingly accepting the ramifications," the OAG said, adding that they made a profit of around 500,000 Swiss francs.

They are accused of qualified money laundering.

They will be tried by Switzerland's Federal Criminal Court under accelerated proceedings, for which "the accused must confess in all material respects and recognize, if only in principle, the civil claims".

The presumption of innocence applies until a final judgement has been rendered, the OAG added.