Cargo handlers at Los Angeles International Airport have been accused of stealing gold bars from a £79 million shipment.
Marlon Moody, 38, and Brian Benson, 35, both of Los Angeles, were arrested by FBI agents and charged on Tuesday.
The pair worked for a contractor providing ground handling services at the airport in April 2020 when they stole four gold slabs from a shipment of 2,000 bars, according to a federal grand jury indictment.
The cargo was being sent from Australia to New York by a Canadian bank, it is alleged.
Each bar weight 2.2 pounds and was worth about $56,000 equivalent to around £39,600.
The bars were offloaded during a stopover at the airport but an evening inventory found that one box containing 25 bars was missing, authorities said.
Moody found the missing box near a cargo warehouse the next day, drove it to a nearby location and removed four bars, prosecutors said.
Other cargo handlers discovered the box with the remaining 21 bars later that day.
Moody gave Benson one bar, another to a relative and buried the other two in his backyard, but the FBI recovered all of them about two weeks later, prosecutors said.
Both men were charged with conspiracy and theft of interstate and foreign shipment, according to a statement from the US attorney’s office.
They could face up to 15 years in federal prison if convicted.
