ISTANBUL, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- Turkish authorities have seized a 2,000-year-old marble head of Zeus and more than 7,100 other historical artifacts in separate anti-smuggling operations across the country, officials said on Wednesday.
In the western province of Izmir, police confiscated a Roman-era marble Zeus head during an operation in the Konak district on Tuesday, according to the provincial security directorate.
The roughly 2,000-year-old artifact was confirmed to be a protected cultural asset and three suspects were detained, Demiroren News Agency reported.
Separately, customs enforcement teams seized a total of 7,160 historical artifacts during two operations at border crossings with Greece in the northwestern province of Edirne, the Trade Ministry announced.
At the Ipsala border crossing, an X-ray scan and subsequent search of a Greece-bound truck uncovered 5,935 cultural artifacts concealed in a food and equipment cabinet inside the trailer, including 5,685 coins, 130 arrowheads, 100 rings and 20 miscellaneous accessories.
In a separate operation at the Kapikule border crossing, officials found another 1,225 undeclared coins in another Greece-bound truck.
The Trade Ministry said judicial investigations into the cases were underway. ■