Undercover reporters pose as gangsters with up to a billion dollars of black money that need to be cleaned. They gain remarkable access to members of Africa’s Gold Mafia and film closed door meetings with crime bosses. A senior African ambassador offers to launder $1.2 million using the cover of his diplomatic bag. Criminals offer lucrative deals to clean over $100 million through government gold export schemes. At the centre of it their operations is southern Africa’s biggest laundromat, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. 

Gold Mafia, a four-part series by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit looks at how society’s obsession with gold underwrites a global shadow economy. The undercover team infiltrates the rival gangs that turn dirty cash into gold, which is then sold around the world.