Tunisia's gold-laundering probe widens: six more Sfax jewelers held
Tunisia's national police said Thursday that six more suspects, artisan jewelers working in Sfax's gold market, had been placed in custody in the investigation into a gold-laundering network, according to a statement from the Directorate General of National Security carried by the state news agency TAP. Investigators now say the network laundered close to two tonnes of gold over the past six years, and accuse the suspects of taking commissions to pass gold quotas assigned by the central bank to other members of the ring. A first phase of the same investigation, reported by this paper on 20 October: thirteen suspects remain in custody, and investigators seized more than 70 kilograms of gold, 4.5 kilograms of silver, nine luxury cars and cash, worth close to 25 million dinars in total.