[CPProt.net] Antiques smugglers seized in Yemen

[a.cremers3 at chello.nl]

Antiques smugglers seized in Yemen  

Big News Network.com     Tuesday 5th April, 2005  (UPI)  

Yemeni police arrested a three-man gang that smuggles antiquities outside the country through a clandestine crossing on the Yemeni-Saudi border.

An official source said Tuesday a team from the General Department of Antiquities headed to the province of Hujja in northwest Yemen to investigate into the smuggling of antiquities though the border passage of Hard on the Saudi border.

He said a gang made up of two Saudis and a Yemeni was arrested last week while trying to smuggle daggers, swords and art pieces dating back to the centuries before Islam.

Last February, the authorities foiled an attempt to smuggle 500 pieces of antiquities by an Iraqi national who was operating under the cover of his freight company.