A discovery of 18 kilos of melted gold in a smuggler's hideout in a car near Munich raises questions. Are these parts of the Big Maple Leaf gold coin stolen in Berlin in 2017?
Munich/Berlin - A civilian patrol from the Hohenbrunn motorway police station made a high-profile find on the A99 near Aschheim near Munich: two men had 18 kilos of gold with them - melted down into mysterious bars. This find stinks. Gold bars usually have a stamp that indicates the weight and alloy and thus the gold content. But these bars were cast in a garage or basement by amateurs, each shimmering with a different color.
On Good Friday, the civil patrol had stopped the two Turkish citizens, one 44 years old, one ten years younger, at the Aschheim/Ismaning junction. Both live in North Rhine-Westphalia. The officers had noticed “abnormalities in the vehicle” with German registration. What the police officers noticed is not revealed
Gold treasure was in a smuggler's hideout
It goes on to say: “During the following check, a smuggling hiding place built into the car was found.” The civil investigators found the mysterious gold treasure in this cavity, which is why the two men were temporarily arrested. Proceedings were initiated against her on suspicion of money laundering, and the public prosecutor had the gold confiscated. There are twelve gold bars that have different weights and shimmer in different colors.
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On the gold market, 18 kilos of the lightest alloy with eight carats would be worth over 400,000 euros, pure gold with 24 carats well over a million. The criminal investigators are now looking for where the gold could have come from. “We are interested in obtaining the gold,” said Werner Kraus, spokesman for the Munich police headquarters.
Is the Manching gold shaft in the gold bar?
It is obvious that the gold treasure is connected to a crime. The police assume that he was supposed to be taken abroad. But what was melted down for him? Is the stolen gold treasure from Manching in there? On November 22, 2022, burglars stole 483 Celtic gold coins as well as a cast cake weighing 217 grams - a total of 3,724 kilos of gold - and three bronze rings from the Celtic-Roman Museum in Manching near Ingolstadt. The treasure was over 2,100 years old.
Eight months later, a gang of burglars that had been active in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania since the 1990s was busted. 18 gold nuggets with a total weight of 29 grams were confiscated, which had probably been melted from the Manching treasure. But the largest part of the treasure is still missing.
Investigators believe there is a possible connection with a break-in at the Bodemuseum
There is also still no trace of the 100 kilo “Big Maple Leaf” coin that was stolen from Berlin’s Bode Museum in 2017. On the night of March 27th, the Canadian giant coin was stolen from the Berlin Coin Cabinet exhibition - it was on loan from a private owner. Its face value was one million Canadian dollars, and the material value at the time was around 3.8 million euros.
The trail led the investigators to the infamous Berlin Remmo clan from southeast Turkey. On February 20, 2020, Wissam and Ahmed Remmo were found guilty of coin theft by the Berlin Regional Court and each sentenced to four and a half years in prison. Wissam Remmo was also convicted in 2019 for participating in the break-in at Dresden's Green Vault, while Ahmed Remmo was acquitted. Investigators assumed the coin was melted down. The investigators found traces of gold and gold chips in the suspects' apartments, vehicles and clothing.
Investigators examine connections
Munich police spokesman Kraus rules out the possibility that the gold discovery near Munich contains part of the Manching coin treasure “with a high degree of probability”. However, every possible connection will be examined. As far as a possible connection with the Big Maple Leaf coin is concerned, it cannot be ruled out “100 percent”. He refers you to the Berlin police headquarters. It says that the connection to the theft from the Bodemuseum “can neither be confirmed nor denied”.