Spain’s National Police said on Monday that they had arrested seven individuals in the Andalusian provinces of Córdoba, Jaén and Seville accused of offences including crimes against historical heritage, money laundering and smuggling.
The arrests are linked to the illegal sale of looted archaeological artefacts, their export without the required permits, and the laundering of the profits obtained from these transactions. The operation led to the seizure of approximately 3,200 artefacts.
The investigation began in March 2023, when police discovered that a company specialising in the online trade of numismatic items was operating stores on several e-commerce platforms, where it was offering large quantities of coins of archaeological origin.
Many of the coins still had traces of soil attached, suggesting they had been recently unearthed – clear evidence of looting from archaeological sites. Such actions constitute a crime against historical heritage in the Spanish Penal Code.
Police identified the individuals behind the company, based in the town of Mairena del Aljarafe (Seville), and discovered that many of the sales were made to buyers abroad, in countries including the UK, US, Australia, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Greece and Japan. According to the police statement, the proceeds from these transactions amounted to over half a million euros in the past five years.
In response, investigators requested information from the Ministry of Culture regarding export permits applied for by the company or its representatives. Under Spanish law, any cultural artifact over 100 years old requires official authorisation for export. Authorities confirmed that no such permits had been requested – an offence that constitutes smuggling under Spanish law.
Investigators determined that the company’s owners sourced coins and other artefacts from illegal origins – buying directly from looters using metal detectors or from auctions held on social media and online sales platforms.
According to the police statement, the majority of the confiscated items were silver coins spanning various historical periods. However, the collection also included Roman-era sling bullets, oil lamps, arrowheads and a glass vessel. Over €37,000 in cash was also seized.
‘Some of the seized objects are in such a good state of preservation that they could only have been extracted from an archaeological site that is not yet known,’ the police statement noted.
All recovered artefacts have been transferred to the Archaeological Museum of Seville for further examination.
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🚩Detenidas 7⃣personas en #Córdoba, #Jaén y #Sevilla por la venta de objetos arqueológicos procedentes de expolio
🔹Intervenidas 3.000 piezas de arqueología, 73 monedas de plata y 37.625 €
🔹Realizados 3⃣registros en #MairenaDelAljarafe, #Linares y #Lucena pic.twitter.com/KRUfxtF9p5
— Policía Nacional (@policia) July 21, 2025
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