The archaeological sites of Cáparra, Villasviejas de Tamuja and the surroundings of the Asset of Cultural Interest of Alcántara, in the province of Cáceres, have suffered over the last few months from plundering practices by a criminal group, to which seized 2,500 pieces of important value, which date back to ancient Rome. An operation that the Civil Guard has called Tamussia and which has resulted in six detainees and three investigated, the latter buyers in the provinces of Cáceres, Lleida and Valencia.
The operation has been carried out mainly by agents of the Nature Protection Service (Seprona), supported by other institutions such as the Junta de Extremadura or the Extremadura justice system. The armed institute has dismantled this group dedicated to archaeological looting with an operations center in Moraleja (Cáceres), which is attributed damages worth 376,000 euros and is accused of crimes of continued damage against historical heritage, aggravated theft, money laundering of capital, reception and membership in a criminal group.
As explained by the lieutenant colonel, head of the Cáceres Civil Guard Command, Rafael Roldán, the investigations began at the end of September and beginning of October 2023, when a series of excavations were detected in these sites. In the records, in addition to the historical pieces, tools that were used to commit crimes, such as metal detectors, have been found.
The alarm was raised by the workers at the Cáparra deposits, in the municipality of Oliva de Plasencia, and Villasviejas de Tamuja in Botija, who found holes distributed throughout the deposits and brought them to the attention of the Guard. Civil, some excavations that were made with manual tools.
Antonio Manuel Lucero, lieutenant, head of the Nature Protection Service of the Cáceres Civil Guard Command, says that the patterns of action were very similar, so they understood that they belonged to the same group, and from the footprints they saw that there were several people who participated in the crimes. “They began to dig when it got dark and through a person who saw one of their cars one night gave us the thread to pull, we found out that it was a well-organized group, that they had their security measures and through a lot of monitoring we managed to discover where they kept the coins”, they say from Seprona.
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Researchers say they were surprised at the records to see the amount of historical material they had managed to loot. “Another way in which we have managed to locate them has been through closed sales in internet groups where there were exclusive Roman coins from one of the sites investigated, that of Villasviejas de Tamujawhich was a place where this type of pieces were minted exclusively,” details Antonio Manuel Lucero.
The Government delegate in Extremadura, José Luis Quintana, considers that this is an important event, since this group has been dismantled. “Once recovered and the band dismantled, these pieces have to be for all Extremadurans and Spaniards,” Quintana highlighted.
And from the Government of Extremadura, the general director of Libraries, Archives and Cultural Heritage, Adela Rueda, has stressed that the recovery of the pieces will allow us to continue delving into the civilizations that inhabited the region. “I highlight the importance of collaboration between administrations to preserve heritage,” said the regional executive. The deposits are highly vulnerable because they are in rural areas, which have a small population.
Rueda assures that some of the recovered coins are very exclusive, since they were only minted in two deposits on the Iberian Peninsula. The economic value of one of these coins can exceed 3,000 euros in the market and the sellers offered the historical treasures at prices much lower than their real value in the legal market.
The criminal gang faces 4 and a half years in prison, only for the damage caused in the looting. All those detained and investigated, seven men and two women, have been placed at the disposal of the Investigative Court number 2 of Cáceres.
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