Texas Police Arrest Chinese Nationals with Hidden Gold Bars Worth $250,000

A routine traffic stop in Van Zandt county in Texas led to two arrests and an unexpected discovery.

According to a report from KETK, an officer with the Witts Point Police Department conducted a traffic stop on August 1 after observing a white Chevy Malibu commit a traffic violation on westbound 1-20.

The officer, identified as Sgt. Charlie Hughes, found that the driver spoke no English. He brought the driver to his patrol car and was able to use a translator app to facilitate asking questions.

The driver, identified as 25-year-old Weijian Chen, told the officer that he and his passenger had flown from Los Angeles, California to Atlanta Georgia to "play". They spent one day in Atlanta.

Chen stated that they were headed to Dallas, Texas when they were stopped by Hughes.

In listening to Chen's tale, Hughes reportedly "observed multiple factors that led him to believe there was criminal activity afoot" and called in the dogs.

Literally.

An K9 unit was brought out to location and an open-air sniff was conducted. The dog gave an alert to a specific area of the vehicle. A subsequent search produced a boarding pass from Spirit Airlines for Chen.

The boarding pass showed that Chen had no bags when he boarded the flight in Los Angeles on July 30.

Officers searched the car and located a bag with surprising and unusual contents: Gold.

The bag was located behind the driver's seat on the floorboard. The gold bullion bars have an estimated value close to $250,000 and were in the denominations of:

• Seven 1 oz packaged 999.9 gold bars
• Three 5 gram packaged 999.9 gold bars
• 1 gram marked with 20 squares 999.9 gold bar
• Eight 10 oz packaged 999.9 gold bars

Both the driver and passenger "claimed they did not know who the bag or gold belonged to".

Chen and his passenger, later identified as 46-year-old Lin Wenqiang, were both arrested and transported to the Van Zandt County Jail.

Law enforcement knew that the two could not have made it past TSA security with such a large amount of gold without having to report it. So they did a little more research.

They soon discovered that the two Chinese nationals they had arrested were in the country illegally. After further questioning, Chen admitted that they had been given the gold bars to transport to Dallas but refused to give further information.

Law enforcement conducted further investigation and found that authorities in Georgia had kept an eye on the two men the day they came to Atlanta to "play".

They reported that the duo had been observed in area known for cartel activity.

Both Chin and Lin have been charged with money laundering and are currently held at the Van Zandt County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bond.