Antiques smugglers seized in Yemen [Archives:2005/831/Local News]

SANA'A, Yemen, April 5: 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 Hajja in northwest Yemen to investigate into the smuggling of antiquities through the border passage of Haradh on the Saudi border.

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

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