New York Times Investigation Finds U.S. Mint Has Been Sourcing Gold from Colombian Drug Cartels and Foreign Mines in Apparent Violation of 1985 Law

Details

On April 26, 2026, The New York Times published an investigation finding that the United States Mint—which sells more than $1 billion in investment-grade gold coins each year stamped with a legally required guarantee that the gold is "100 percent American"—has for decades been the final link in a supply chain that launders foreign gold, much of it illegally mined, into Lady Liberty and American Eagle coins.

Reporters traced gold from a cartel-controlled mine called La Mandinga in northwestern Colombia, through Caucasia gold shops, a Colombian government-owned exporter, a Texas refinery, and into the Mint's suppliers. They also documented Mint gold originating in Mexican and Peruvian pawn shops, a Honduran company that excavated an Indigenous graveyard, and a Congolese mine partly owned by the Chinese government.

The 1985 Law

Congress in 1985 prohibited the Mint from making bullion out of foreign gold, part of an effort to insulate U.S. coinage from human rights abuses, primarily in apartheid South Africa. The statute requires American Eagle gold coins to be made from gold "from newly mined domestic sources." According to the Times, the Mint has flouted that law across both Democratic and Republican administrations, despite internal warnings.

The investigation also notes that even President Trump's commemorative 24-karat gold coin marking the United States' 250th birthday could be made from a mix of non-American gold from any number of sources.

The Colombian Supply Chain

Times reporters traveled to La Mandinga, a former government cattle ranch outside Caucasia in Antioquia department, where the Clan del Golfo cartel runs an illegal mining operation:

• Cartel control: Two mining supervisors told reporters the Clan has run the operation for eight years, collecting $400 per month from each five-person mining team. Hundreds, possibly more than a thousand, teams operate at the site.
• Methods: Workers use excavators and high-pressure hoses to liquefy hillsides, then mix the resulting mud with mercury to bind the gold—a method that is illegal, environmentally destructive, and toxic to workers.
• Impunity: The mine abuts a Colombian military base, and reporters' drone footage showed workers had breached the base's perimeter and were mining on military land.

The cartel was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in 2025, and the Treasury Department keeps Clan del Golfo leaders on a financial blacklist that bans American companies from doing business with them.

How Illegal Gold Becomes "Legal" and "American"

The Times documented a two-step laundering process:

Step 1 — Becoming legal: Miners sell mercury-and-gold marbles to shops in Caucasia, where workers like Alex Cuevas (who said he suffers from mercury poisoning) burn off the mercury and pay cash. The shops register the gold under a Colombian program for small-scale, hand-tool miners called barequeros, even though the gold was extracted with heavy machinery and mercury in unauthorized areas. Colombian authorities verify paperwork rather than origin. Gold trader Patrick Schein of Gold by Gold told the Times that anyone buying from barequeros is buying illegal gold.

Step 2 — Becoming American: The Colombian government-owned exporter ships the gold—about $255 million worth in the past year, according to export records—to a Dallas-area refinery called Dillon Gage, where it is melted in a single cauldron with gold from American jewelry dealers, Peruvian pawn shops, and other sources. Dillon Gage CEO Terry Hanlon told the Times that once gold leaves the cauldron, the industry treats it as American "as far as they're concerned." Hanlon said two Mint suppliers are among Dillon Gage's biggest clients, and that he provides them annual lists of his sources. Hanlon said the company suspended purchases from the Colombian exporter after being informed of the Times's findings.

Other Foreign Sources

The investigation identified additional foreign gold flowing into the Mint's supply chain:

• Asahi USA (Utah refiner, historically one of the largest Mint suppliers): Refining chief Paul Healey acknowledged the company's gold is "commingled" from many countries.
• Canadian Copper Refinery: Records show the Mint has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on gold bars from this refiner, which produces gold from copper-processing slime—not newly mined gold as required by law. Some of the copper comes from a Congolese mine partly owned by the Chinese government.
• Industrial mines in Mexico and Peru, plus pawn shops specializing in recycled jewelry.

Treasury Inspector General Findings

A 2024 Treasury Department Inspector General audit found that for two decades—covering nearly all of the post-September 11 gold boom—the Mint never asked its suppliers where they bought gold. The audit also found:

• The Mint was not following its own policies.
• The Mint's "gold-offset" plan, under which suppliers were expected to balance foreign gold purchases with equivalent American gold purchases, may itself violate U.S. law.
• The Mint was not enforcing the offset provision or even asking suppliers to comply.

The investigation began during Trump's first term. The Biden administration responded in 2024 saying it was months away from publishing new plans for investigating gold sources, but never did.

Government Response

When first contacted, a Mint spokesman told the Times that its gold came entirely from the United States. After being shown the reporting, the Mint revised its statement to say the U.S. was its "primary" source and that it was taking steps to better track its gold.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent issued a written statement saying he would investigate the Mint's gold procurement practices: "This review is focused on ensuring that the U.S. Mint's gold suppliers comply with the law and strictly satisfy their obligations, and that the Mint takes every step possible to continue to vigorously safeguard our national security and uphold market integrity."

A Treasury spokeswoman told the Times the Trump administration was already taking steps to identify gold sources, but said cutting off foreign gold would make it impossible to meet demand. The Mint has not released its gold-tracking policy.

Contradiction with the Caribbean Boat Strike Campaign

The investigation surfaces an acute tension with the Trump administration's parallel narcotics policy. Since September 2, 2025, U.S. forces have been conducting lethal strikes on alleged drug-trafficking vessels off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia as part of Operation Southern Spear. According to U.S. Southern Command and Pentagon figures, at least 163 people had been killed in 47 strikes on 48 vessels as of March 25, 2026.

The administration has consistently framed those killed as "narco-terrorists" linked to designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. On October 1, 2025, Trump formally notified Congress that the U.S. was in a "non-international armed conflict" with "unlawful combatants" tied to drug cartels. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in October: "If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat al-Qaeda." On January 3, 2026, the campaign culminated in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who U.S. prosecutors allege ran a drug trafficking organization called the Cartel de los Soles.

The Times investigation indicates that, during the same period, the Mint's supply chain was importing gold from a mine controlled by Clan del Golfo — a Colombian cartel that Secretary of State Marco Rubio formally designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2025, and whose leaders the Treasury Department keeps on a financial blacklist banning American companies from doing business with them. Gold and cocaine are both revenue streams for the cartel, and in Caucasia the Clan collects $400 monthly fees from both miners and gold shops.

The administration has not publicly addressed how its lethal-force posture against alleged low-level traffickers in international waters — many of whose identities the Defense Department has not released, and some of whom Colombian President Gustavo Petro has identified as fishermen — squares with a federal procurement pipeline that, according to the Times, has channeled hundreds of millions of dollars through Clan del Golfo's gold operation.

Broader Context

Gold prices hover around $5,000 an ounce, roughly four times the price of a decade ago. The Times reports that surging prices have created strong incentives for criminal organizations and unregulated operators to mine destructively, and that gold mining funds Sudan's civil war, helps Russia and Iran blunt the effects of financial sanctions, and supports terrorist groups including some linked to Al Qaeda. Illegal mining is a major driver of Amazon deforestation and mercury poisoning of Indigenous communities.

The Mint, the largest name in the global market for investment gold coins, sits at the end of this supply chain. As the Times concludes, the industry's distinctions between dirty and clean gold "exist mainly on paper," and unless a buyer checks its sources, those distinctions disappear in the refining process.