Nineveh Police seize more than $ 1.5 million, gold hidden by ISIS in Mosul

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Nineveh police found more than $ 1.5 million in cash and gold bars hidden by the Islamic State (ISIS) in a house in Mosul, the Ministry of Interior announced on Thursday. 

In an official statement, the ministry said that Nineveh police found cash and bars of gold and silver belonging to the “Diwan of Finance” – or ISIS financial department - in a home in the Old City.

Police also seized 17 million Iraqi dinars and 15 kilograms of shredded silver bars for the purpose of printing ISIS coins, according to the statement.

The stash was found buried three meters underground, uncovered by excavators removing rubble from the Old City, according to a statement from the Supreme Judicial Council. 

ISIS seized vast swathes northern Iraq in the summer of 2014, including Mosul – Iraq’s second largest city. 

Although the Iraqi government announced the territorial defeat of ISIS in December 2017, remnants of the group have returned to earlier insurgency tactics, ambushing security forces, kidnapping and executing suspected informants, extorting money from vulnerable rural populations, and carrying out bomb attacks.

Arrests of suspected ISIS members are often announced across Iraq, including in Mosul.

Large parts of Mosul are still destroyed, with the bodies of people killed in the war against ISIS still lying under the rubble.

Updated at 2:17pm