Antiquities traffickers busted in Bulgaria

Bulgaria’s Unit for Combating Organized Crime (GDBOP) has shattered a ring for antiques trafficking, and has confiscated over 800 archaeological artifacts and coins, including a very valuable marble gravestone of a Roman Decurion.

This marble gravestone of a Roman Decurion who lived in Castra ad Montanesium
(today Bulgaria’s Montana), and died at the age of 40, has been seized from 
antique traffickers in Bulgaria [Credit: Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry]

The Bulgarian police have staged two police operations in the northwestern city of Montana, and in the southern cities of Haskovo and Plovdiv, the press center of the Interior Ministry has announced.

They have busted a total of six men and have searched their homes. One of the detainees is described as “one of the leading dealers and traffickers”.

Some of the over 800 archaeological and coins from the Antiquity and 
the Middle Ages that have been seized from the antique traffickers 
[Credit: Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry]

Two of the men were caught red handed while transporting some of the archaeological artifacts for their negotiated sale.

The police say the organized criminal group in question had been in charge of a trafficking channel for the smuggling of antiques abroad.

The over 800 artifacts confiscated the by police officers are mostly items and coins 
from different periods of the Antiquity – from the Hellenistic Age and from 
the period of the Roman Empire [Credit: Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry]

The police operations and the seizures of the archaeological artifacts were carried out on October 7-8, 2015, but have been reported only now.

Metal detectors and other equipment for the searching of archaeological sites have also been seized.

Author: Ivan Dikov | Source: Archaeology in Bulgaria [October 17, 2015]