Archeological looting in Mexico

1121

During the last decade, Mexico’s FGR has seized over 600 archeological vestiges and historical monuments stolen by national and transnational criminal organizations.

United States, Spain, Germany, and Italy are the main international destinations of archeological vestiges and historical monuments stolen in Mexico by national and transnational criminal organizations.

During the last decade, from 2008 to 2018, Mexico’s Attorney General Office (FGR) seized at least 634 objects, among them ceramic and clay figurines, arrow points, stone artifacts, canvasses, and sculptures carved in wood, which are sold or auctioned in the global black market.

U.S. returns two Teotihuacan archeological pieces to Mexico.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has just returned two archeological pieces to Mexico.

According to statistics of the Special Unit for Environmental Offenses and Offenses Defined in Special Laws, in charge of the investigations of this issue, the biggest securing of archeological pieces and historical monuments took place in 2010, 2012, and 2014 in states like Jalisco, Tlaxcala, Mexico City, Nuevo León, Guanajuato, and Zacatecas.

The unit attached to the Assitant Attorney General for Special Investigations of Federal Crimes (SEIDF) has performed repatriation of these objects from the United States, Spain, Germany, and Italy, where it was detected that organized groups focused on this crime take the stolen pieces.

Criminal organizations focused on antiquity theft use courier companies for the deliveries, according to Mexico’s Federal Police.

Source: El Universal