Troops Find 2,000 Gold Bars
W A S H I N G T O N, May 23 -- U.S. officials believe they have caught Iraqis trying to smuggle a half billion dollars in gold into Syria.
Soldiers from the Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Division stumbled on the cache Thursday during a routine traffic stop at a checkpoint near the Syrian border, Central Command announced today.
Soldiers stopped two Iraqis driving in a Mercedes truck filled with 2,000 40-pound gold bars, Army officials say.
The two Iraqis said they believed the truck was loaded with bronze. They say someone paid them the Iraqi equivalent of just $350 to drive the bars to a meeting point near the border town of Al Qaim.
The Army plans to test the bars just to be sure that it is gold. But they now say the find may turn out to have a total worth of $500 million.
But U.S. officials are hopeful that this may be half of the $1 billion in gold believed stashed away just before the war by Saddam Hussein and his sons.
The 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Central Command officials say, have custody of the truck, the bars and the two suspects.
Brian Hartman contributed to this report from the Pentagon.
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