A man from north Spain, specialising in the illicit sale of antiquities plundered from archeological sites in Calasparra, Murcia, Mula and Abaran, has been arrested by the Guardia Civil.
During the police operation 3,000 antique coins, mosaics, ceramics and beads have been recovered. One coin is reported to be worth more than 1,000 euros.
According to the Guardia Civil, archeological sites in the region have become a grand supermarket for the plunder of antiquities which are then sold illegally on the Internet. In many cases these antiquities form part of the historic patrimony of the region.
Last week a resident of Vigo was detained by the Guardia Civil after he allegedly put 400 antique coins, which came from an archeological site, up for sale on the Internet.
The Guardia Civil suspect he has put some 2,400 similar items on the illegal market in the last few years. He is suspected to be a contact for other suspects, also arrested, who searched archeological sites for the items and put them on sale on the black market.
The coins recovered during the investigation are reported to be of “considerable historic value”.
In April this year, as previously reported on this webpage, the Guardia Civil discovered a centre of operations in Calasparra. This criminal network used metal detectors on archeological sites to find antiquities to order. The finds were then put on the Internet by the head of operations and a finders´ percentage was paid to gang members. A workshop where the coins were cleaned was also discovered.
During raids on the local premises some 2,000 antique coins were found plus notebooks which led to the identification of another six people implicated in the network from Calasparra, Cordoba, Malaga and Segovia.
