Argentine sting nets 12,000 archeological pieces

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) -- Police recovered fossils, arrow heads and ear rings among 12,000 pieces of archaeological artifacts in a pre-dawn raid on Thursday of a suspected smuggling ring that allegedly sold the relics in Europe.

Investigators loaded crates of articles, which also included pottery and textiles, into four Argentine Air Force vans in the historic neighborhood of San Telmo in Buenos Aires, popular among tourists for its antique stores and weekend flea market.

Police raided an apartment there after an investigation was launched in response to a find of smuggled goods at an international airport near Buenos Aires.

"Twenty police and experts in archaeology and paleontology have been working on this investigation for two months after the air force detected artifacts being smuggled through the airport for destinations in Europe," investigating judge Carlos Liporaci told Reuters.

The Air Force is responsible for airport security and detected four boxes of undeclared artifacts valued at about $10,000 each, Liporaci said. Those boxes were destined for flights to Europe, he added.

"The vast majority of the pieces come from northern Argentina but we believe there are artifacts from other South American countries as well and we'll contact the pertinent embassies once we confirm the origin of the items," Liporaci said.

Argentina is rich in dinosaur fossils as well as pre-Colombian archaeological artifacts and its vast, sparsely populated northwestern frontier with Chile, Bolivia and Paraguay is a popular route for smugglers who whisk in an estimated $1.5 billion in non-drug contraband every year.

Argentine security forces launched a crackdown this year leading to the seizure of $23.8 million in non-drug contraband -- mostly cigarettes, fuel and clothes but wild animals and artifacts as well -- between January and May of this year, Interior Ministry data shows.

That compares to $24.7 million in seized non-drug goods in all of 1999.

No arrests have yet been made in Thursday's case but at least two Argentine laws banning the export of artifacts and failing to make a customs declaration had been violated, Liporaci said.

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