Returning from Dubai, a gold trader was arrested at Copenhagen Airport on suspicion of money laundering, and millions of dollars worth of gold were confiscated.
According to the Ritzau news agency, citing local media, Denmark’s National Unit for Special Crime Prevention (National enhed for Særlig Kriminalitet) announced that the owner of a jewelry store in the capital, Copenhagen, is accused of laundering at least 55 million Danish kroner through gold import and export operations between Denmark and Dubai.
The unit said in a press release that authorities arrested the suspect, a 28-year-old man, on Thursday at Copenhagen Airport while he was making a customs declaration for the import of 12 kilograms of gold.
Police reported that the man, who resides in Sweden and is officially registered in Denmark, was receiving large sums of money in cash and then converting them into gold in order to hide or disguise the illicit source of these funds.
According to the indictment, these activities extended from February 2022 to August 2025.
Police explained that the accused was buying gold in Denmark, then it was melted down and sent to Dubai, where it was refined to a higher purity level before being re-imported into Denmark.
The statement added that the unit raided three addresses in search of evidence to continue the investigation, including digital evidence and documents, and seized gold with an estimated total value of about 24 million kronor.
“We have long been interested in this jewelry store, as we suspect that extensive and organized money laundering activities resulting from crime were taking place at this address,” said Lars Feldt-Rasmussen, deputy police inspector of the unit, in the statement.
The accused is scheduled to appear before a court on Friday to consider his pretrial detention pending investigation, where he will face charges of money laundering of a special and serious nature.
The police indicated that they would request that the session be held behind closed doors in order to maintain the confidentiality of the investigations, while the accused's position on the charges against him is not yet known.
