Georgia’s customs officers find 18kg of gold bars, worth 1.32m GEL

Georgian customs officers have made a remarkable discovery of 18kg of undeclared gold bars, worth an estimated 1.32 million GEL.

The 19 gold blocks of various carats and weights were found by customs officers of Georgia’s Revenue Service at the Georgia-Azerbaijan border crossing point.

The 19 gold bars were concealed by an Azerbaijani man who was attempting to smuggle the gold into Georgia.

The man’s vehicle and personal belongings were put through an x-ray scanner, which detected the hidden gold.

The gold pieces were intentionally concealed and were found in a special hidden storage space located between the trunk and the rear seats.

Initial estimations value the 18.6kg of gold, separated into 19 bars, at 1,322,763 GEL (about $577,669/€510,602*).

The Azerbaijani citizen trying to smuggle the gold into Georgia has only been identified as A.I.

The customs officers stopped the man at the Red Bridge - a crossing point between Georgia and Azerbaijan on the Tbilisi-Ganja road.

The case has been transferred to the Investigation Service of the Ministry of Finance for further investigating.

*Currencies are equivalent with the latest National Bank of Georgia exchange rate.