Akhenaten and Ramesses II smuggled to Algeria
The National Gendarmerie forces recovered a rare piece of antiquity in the province of Chelf (west of Algiers) representing the Egyptian civilisation. They were intended to be sold at 500 million centimes each. Four people were arrested for working with an international network of smuggling antiquity pieces to Arab and European countries.
- The case comes back to Friday when the National Gendarmeries learnt that a group of men were making business with antiquity pieces representing the Egypt. A plan was prepared to catch the suspects and investigators identified the person who possesses those rare pieces of antiquity.
- The National Gendarmerie forces arrested 4 men involved in smuggling the pieces who were in a Renault white car. The pieces which were wrapped represented Pharaohs Akhenaten and Ramesses II. They are protected by virtue of local and international laws.
- Investigations show that those pieces were brought from the province of Tiaret (west of Algiers) by a man who assigned them to find a client to buy them.
- According to sources, some Moroccan members in the network were involved in smuggling more than 270 pieces of antiquity including golden coins in December 2004. The list of suspects included officials at the Egyptian antiquity sector, antiquity inspectors and three jewel tradesmen. Thousands of rare pieces of antiquity were caught in their houses and they admitted that they had sold about 40,000 pieces of antiquity abroad.