French customs officials say they have seized more than 650 ancient artefacts smuggled from Mali in one of the largest such finds at a Paris airport.
Described as an "archaeological treasure", the objects were thought to be on their way to private US buyers. The artefacts are thought to have been taken from archaeological sites on the edge of the Sahara desert.
Since 2004 we have observed regular traffic in this kind of contraband. There is a big market and we are pretty sure that these items, which had been neatly sorted and were of very high quality, had been pre-sold," Eric Cailheton said.
French customs officials made two similarly large finds of archaeological items from Niger in March 2004 and December 2005. The 2005 haul included more than 5,000 stone arrowheads and 90 carved stone artefacts, dating back 5,000 years.
The items were found in the baggage of a passenger who arrived on a flight from Niger's capital, Niamey.
