More than $40 million worth of gold, silver and other jewelry forfeited in an international money laundering investigation have arrived in Austin, Texas, says a U.S. Justice report.

 

The jewelry was originally seized as the result of a money laundering investigation that identified two companies in the Colon Free Zone in Colon, Panama, that were responsible for laundering narcotics proceeds from the United States.

 

According to the report, the investigation that resulted in the forfeiture led to the first U.S. indictment of an offshore business engaged in the illicit black market peso exchange, a money laundering operation through which narcotics proceeds earned in the United States are exchanged for Colombian pesos and then used to purchase goods in the Colon Free Zone.