ISIS buries money and gold in the deserts of Iraq and Syria
ISIS buries money and gold in the deserts of Iraq and Syria
8-31-2026
The Information Agency/Translation:
A joint investigation published by the American magazine The New Line on Monday revealed that the ISIS terrorist organization resorted to hiding its financial assets underground in the deserts of Syria and Iraq in its final days, and that an operation is underway to uncover them.
The report, translated by the Information Agency, stated that “as the ISIS terrorist organization sensed its imminent demise, it rushed to hide tens of millions of dollars in well-ventilated underground chambers scattered throughout the areas it controlled in Iraq and Syria, according to a joint investigation by Investigative Journalism for Accountability and The New Line. The investigation learned that, to date, Iraqi central government forces, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, and an international coalition have recovered at least $47 million in cash and gold.”
It added that “the investigative team identified the locations of the recovered caches, most of which are concentrated in a corridor stretching from Deir ez-Zor to Iraq’s Anbar province, the same area the organization previously used to smuggle money and weapons. The organization continues to exploit its buried wealth to rebuild its operational capabilities, but these efforts appear meager compared to its extensive financial network operating globally.”
The findings, which reveal a veritable clandestine financial network, are based on a trove of ISIS documents stored on a hard drive recovered from a former known ISIS command center. The documents were authenticated through a joint investigation involving interviews with local and international experts, as well as known former ISIS fighters.
The report states that in September 2020, as ISIS was losing its last major strongholds in Syria and Iraq, an internal document from the “governor of Sham” contained a simple order to every regional emir and unit commander: “Bury the money.” This directive concerned a portion of the wealth the group had amassed during its years of control over vast swathes of Syria and Iraq. The order instructed the group’s financial officers to distribute the funds to multiple secure burial sites, ensuring their retrieval if needed.
The report further notes that over a period of more than 20 months, the investigation team documented nine major security operations conducted by the international coalition, during which cash, gold, and other precious metals hidden by ISIS in Syria and Iraq were recovered. The investigation team also analyzed internal documents of the terrorist organization, expert testimonies, and security sources revealing, for the first time publicly, the administrative and financial structure that managed these hideouts, and the role they played in maintaining a portion of the organization’s financial capacity after its territorial losses.
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