Overview
- Manchester Magistrates' Court granted the forfeiture order on February 19, valuing the five bars at £1.81m.
- Airport officers found the gold in May 2025 in a passenger’s hand luggage that exceeded a 15kg allowance.
- The bars were seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act based on suspicion they derived from criminality.
- GMP says 50 percent of the recovered value will flow to its Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme for local reinvestment.
- Police call the outcome their highest-value listed assets forfeiture and say the civil recovery concluded without further investigative details released.