In 2024, Argentinian officials began investigating the potential existence of a gold smuggling scheme on the Argentina-Paraguay border after arresting a German and Argentinian for entering the country illegally from Paraguay carrying money and gold bars. According to the Global Organized Crime Index, illegally extracted gold that is smuggled to Europe is being validated in Paraguay through the bribery of authorities that create false documentation – raising a risk that these individuals were trafficking laundered gold. According to the Argentine Ministry of Security, the individuals were in a pickup truck that crossed the ferry between Bella Vista, in Paraguay, and the Argentine town of Corpus, on the banks of the Paraná River, in the province of Misiones. At first, the two occupants of the vehicle managed to evade the control of the agents of the Argentine Naval Prefecture, who noticed that one of them appeared to be carrying objects attached to his body. Hours later, in the province of Corrientes, the pair were stopped by soldiers from the National Gendarmerie, who discovered six bars and some gold sheets, with no documentation.