More than 2,500 looted archaeological items recovered in Cáceres | Spain | EUROtoday

The archaeological websites of Cáparra, Villasviejas de Tamuja and the environment of the Asset of Cultural Interest of Alcántara, within the province of Cáceres, have suffered over the previous few months from plundering practices by a prison group, to which seized 2,500 items of necessary worth, which date again to historic Rome. An operation that the Civil Guard has referred to as Tamussia and which has resulted in six detainees and three investigated, the latter patrons within the provinces of Cáceres, Lleida and Valencia.

The operation has been carried out primarily by brokers of the Nature Protection Service (Seprona), supported by different establishments such because the Junta de Extremadura or the Extremadura justice system. The armed institute has dismantled this group devoted to archaeological looting with an operations middle in Moraleja (Cáceres), which is attributed damages value 376,000 euros and is accused of crimes of continued harm in opposition to historic heritage, aggravated theft, cash laundering of capital, reception and membership in a prison group.

As defined by the lieutenant colonel, head of the Cáceres Civil Guard Command, Rafael Roldán, the investigations started on the finish of September and starting of October 2023, when a collection of excavations had been detected in these websites. In the data, along with the historic items, instruments that had been used to commit crimes, resembling steel detectors, have been discovered.

The alarm was raised by the employees on the Cáparra deposits, within the municipality of Oliva de Plasencia, and Villasviejas de Tamuja in Botija, who discovered holes distributed all through the deposits and introduced them to the eye of the Guard. Civil, some excavations that had been made with guide instruments.

Antonio Manuel Lucero, lieutenant, head of the Nature Protection Service of the Cáceres Civil Guard Command, says that the patterns of motion had been very comparable, so that they understood that they belonged to the identical group, and from the footprints they noticed that there have been a number of individuals who participated within the crimes. “They began to dig when it got dark and through a person who saw one of their cars one night gave us the thread to pull, we found out that it was a well-organized group, that they had their security measures and through a lot of monitoring we managed to discover where they kept the coins”, they say from Seprona.

Researchers say they were surprised at the records to see the amount of historical material they had managed to loot. “Another manner during which we’ve got managed to find them has been via closed gross sales in web teams the place there have been unique Roman cash from one of many investigated websites, that of Villasviejas de Tamuja, which was a spot the place this kind was minted. of items solely,” particulars Antonio Manuel Lucero.

The Government delegate in Extremadura, José Luis Quintana, considers that this is a crucial occasion, since this group has been dismantled. “Once recovered and the band dismantled, these pieces have to be for all Extremadurans and Spaniards,” Quintana highlighted.

And from the Government of Extremadura, the final director of Libraries, Archives and Cultural Heritage, Adela Rueda, has confused that the restoration of the items will permit us to proceed delving into the civilizations that inhabited the area. “I highlight the importance of collaboration between administrations to preserve heritage,” mentioned the regional govt. The deposits are extremely weak as a result of they’re in rural areas, which have a small inhabitants.

Rueda assures that among the recovered cash are very unique, since they had been solely minted in two deposits on the Iberian Peninsula. The financial worth of one in every of these cash can exceed 3,000 euros available in the market and the sellers supplied the historic treasures at costs a lot decrease than their actual worth within the authorized market.

The prison gang faces 4 and a half years in jail, just for the harm triggered within the looting. All these detained and investigated, seven males and two girls, have been positioned on the disposal of the Investigative Court quantity 2 of Cáceres.