Leon Trabuco was a Mexican millionaire who sought to become a multi-millionaire. In 1933, the greedy businessman saw an opportunity, and he believed Mexico’s neighbor to the north was the means to achieving his goal.

The four-year-long Great Depression had destroyed the fortunes of many, but Trabuco was convinced it would increase his wealth. He was certain the United States would soon devalue the dollar and the end result would be a surge in gold prices. In anticipation, he and four other men bought up the bulk of Mexico’s gold reserves to resell in the United States.

In less than three months, Trabuco and his partners accumulated nearly sixteen tons of solid gold, which they melted down and cast into ingots at a makeshift Mexican foundry. The opportunity to make huge profits, though, carried huge risks. If caught smuggling gold into the United States, the men faced significant time behind iron bars.

Trabuco scoured America for a locale to hide his illicit treasure. When every venue above ground was deemed unsafe, he is said to have taken his treasure underground.

For decades, treasure hunters have searched, unsuccessfully, for the buried loot. Many are convinced the riches exist, but others believe the search for the so-called Trabuco Treasure is only a wild goose chase.

Leon Trabuco 

Trabuco’s Cohorts included Guzman Morada, an Economics Professor and Counsel at the University of Mexico; Ricardo Arteaga, a wealthy rancher from Torreon, in the state of Coahuila, bordering Texas; rancher Carlos Sepulveda from Chihuahua in the state of the same name, bordering New Mexico and Texas; and Rafael Borrega, an international banker for Mexico and Spain.

Trabcuo, also a wealthy rancher and large scale miner from Chihuahua, became the group’s leader. In the picture, he is seated on the bottom right.

Trabuco’s Group

Trabuco is believed to have enlisted stunt pilot Bill Elliot to scour for a region in the southwest United States suitable to hide the illegal gold. Said to have found such a locale, Elliot allegedly made sixteen evening flights over the following months, carrying one ton of gold each time aboard his Cessna. He is believed to flown a variety of routes as his plane was never detected crossing the border. Records show the final shipment was delivered on July 14, 1933.

Elliot was paid handsomely for his services but was not told the location of where the gold was stored. Upon unloading the cargo on the plateau, he was ordered to immediately fly off. Trucks then supposedly transported the illicit cargo to a secret burial site.

Some sources identify the name of the pilot as Red Moiser, while others suggest the name was a pseudonym used by Elliot in flying the covert missions.

You Load Sixteen Tons

What Do You Get?

Six months later, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 into law. Effective January 30, the act required all gold and gold certificates held by the Federal Reserve be surrendered and vested in the United States Department of the Treasury.

The price of gold soared and the potential profit of Trabuco’s group increased by seven million dollars. The men, however, were not content. They decided to hang onto the gold, believing the price would get even higher.

The Government Takes The Gold

Trabuco and his cohorts were unaware, however, of FDR’s Executive Order 6102 issued a year earlier, on April 5, 1933, prohibiting private ownership of most gold within the United States and forbidding American citizens from owning or trading most forms of gold anywhere in the world.

Following a grace period, all Americans holding gold and gold certificates had to surrender them to the Federal Reserve in exchange for paper currency. The only exceptions granted were some forms of jewelry and collectors’ coins.

FDR Unwittingly Thwarts The Hoarders Plans

Had Trabuco and his partners sold their gold in early 1933, they would have greatly increased their fortunes. With the enactment of Executive Order 6102, their reputed treasure of gold had become sixteen tons of trash.

By 1940, all of Trabuco’s partners had died: Borreaga and Morada succumbed to natural causes, Arrteaga was gored to death by a fighting bull, and Sepulvedo was killed in a car crash. Trabuco’s pilot, Bill Elliot, had joined the United States Air Force during World War II and was killed in a bombing raid over Germany.

Trabuco’s Cabal Are All Gone

Leon Trabuco unsuccessfully tried to sell the gold on the black market over the following eighteen years. Among those he had contacted were a former Gestapo officer living in Mexico and Swedish industrialist Axel Wenner-Gren, one of the wealthiest men in the world.

In 1952, Trabuco attempted to cut a covert deal with the United States government. Instead, a grand jury was convened to investigate whether he and four other financiers had orchestrated a plot to buy up Mexico’s gold reserves and resell them in the United States.

Trabuco was never indicted and he died shortly thereafter. He did not make a map of where he is alleged to have buried the gold. Shortly before his death, he is said to have uttered “the gold is only a few miles from a major New Mexico landmark.”

Did Trabuco Bury The Gold?

The limitation on gold ownership in the United States was repealed after President Gerald Ford signed a bill legalizing private ownership of gold coins, bars, and certificates.

The law went into effect December 31, 1974.

President Gerald Ford Legalizes Ownership Of Gold 

With individual gold ownership again legal, Trabuco’s alleged hidden loot was again valuable. Legend holds he buried the gold in a sparsely populated region near Farmington in the Four Corners region of northwest New Mexico, near the Ute and Navajo Indian Reservations.

Does The Gold Lie Buried In Northwest New Mexico?

Several elderly Navajo women claimed when they were children they saw Bill Elliot’s plane land many times in the Conger Mesa region in San Juan County in northwest New Mexico. Many treasure hunters believe the Trabuco Gold is buried in a triangle area of the region close to Shiprock Peak and Route 504.

The Conger Mesa Treasure Triangle?

Treasure hunters have searched for the alleged “Trabuco Treasure” to no avail. Does the purported gold lie beneath the desert of northwest New Mexico or are the hunters only chasing a legend?

Is The Trabuco Treasure A Tall Tale?

In 1941, after word of Trabuco’s alleged gold cache had spread, he was approached by a man identifying himself as Ivan Nasicecu, claiming to be acting as an agent of one of the royal houses of Europe. The potential buyer was suspected to be Carol II, the former King of Romania who was then living in exile in Mexico. He had been denied entry into the United States and purportedly believed he could buy his way into the country with the offer of the gold.

Trabuco rejected the offer, deeming it too risky.

Carol II

Former King Of Romania

 

SOURCES:

• • Albuquerque Journal
  • The Meister Chronicles
  • Santa Fe New Mexican
  • Toronto Star
  • Unexplained Mysteries
  • Unsolved Mysteries