All that glitters is gold, if its Dubai. Nicknamed as the ‘City of Gold’, the superdome of the Middle East has the best-in-class from tourism to skyscrapers and hosts worldwide events. However, its unmatched shine is a result of Dubai gold smuggling, which pitches different parts of the world, but takes its major chunk of the lucrative metal from the continent of Africa.
The Africa Connection
As per the results of examination carried out by Reuters, gold amounting worth billions of dollars is being smuggled out of Africa every year through UAE, who further lends it to countries including Europe and the US.
Notably, the imports mostly compromise of unrefined gold, with the numbers ramping up from $1.3 billion in 2006 to $15.1 billion in 2016. So, how exactly is this gold smuggled?
To understand this, it has to be kept in mind that Gold is being produced illegally in many countries in Africa, including Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia. And it is exactly the loophole that gives UAE the undue advantage of purchasing the metal, without being recorded in the books.
The illicit mining of gold is done by children and people through informal sequences of events, which is better termed as small-scale mining or “artisanal”. The popular activity of mining has become a reliant source to earn bread, especially as miners function individually and not on the behalf of large scale businesses.
Contrarily, not all work illegally, as some mine legally and sell it to middlemen, who then supply it further down the chain. These intermediaries then sell out the gold directly, or across borders of Africa. The constant change of ownership, thus, eliminates the possibility of tracking the original source of generation.
Statistically, the UAE imported gold from as many as 46 African states in 2016. Of which, 25 provide no date on their exports to the Gulf monarchy. And one major country in the mix that supplies a chunk of gold to the UAE is Togo, which takes the lucrative metal from Burkina Faso, the fourth largest producer in Africa.
Dubai gold smuggling is connection made possible as one link joins the other, and while Africa contributes majority, UAE has left no stone unturned to acquire gold from elsewhere.
The Venezuela Connection
Reportedly, the UAE despite the US sanctions also manages to sniff gold from Venezuela. In 2018, the Venezuelan Central Bank (BCV) sold 73.2 tonnes gold to two UAE firms namely Noor Capital and Goetz Gold, and another in Turkey.
As known, Noor capital and Goetz Gold are based in Abu Dhabi and Dubai respectively, and that the latter is a Belgian firm operating in the Arab Emirates. As per Spanish news site Runrun, who had access to documents of gold that made way out Venezuela in 2018, the Noor capital obtained 27.396 tonnes of gold, while Goetz Gold got hold of 21.886 tonnes.
But How Does Venezuelan Gold Reach UAE?
According to Infodio, an investigative journalism website exposing Venezuela’s corruption, a person named Aliou Boubacar Diallo, who is a CEO of Wassoul’or SA and President of Petroma Inc, controls a gold mine in Mali called Wassoul’or. Besides, Diallo is also a silent partner with Noor Capital’s Olivier Couriol, Rashed Al Suwaidi, and Abdul Jabbar Al-Sayegh.
As per by BCV, the gold is flown in cargo planes to the UAE, and it is here that Diallo enters the scene using his firm’s name. The operation implies the gold is billed under a legitimate name and enters the Emirates. Besides, the gold is sometimes indirectly flown to the UAE via Mali, where Couriol and co. at Noor Capital disguise it as Malian gold.
Clearly enough, Dubai gold smuggling from across the world enables UAE to shine at the world stage, which is shameful because at one end it is exporting unrefined gold using illegal paths, while on the other it is violating the US sanctions.
