ICE, CBP and El Salvador celebrate recovery of pre-Columbian artifacts in joint investigation into smuggling ring selling on E-Bay
WASHINGTON - The Embassy of El Salvador was the scene May 12 of the return of dozens of pre-Columbian and Mayan artifacts that were seized in the first joint concurrent investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the National Civilian Police of El Salvador into an international smuggling ring that was selling these antiquities on the Internet. ICE Deputy Assistant Secretary Alonzo Pena presented dozens of cultural items to appointed Ambassador Francisco Altschul in a ceremony that was streamed live in video to the Salvadoran Foreign Ministry in San Salvador, where other pieces seized in the Salvadoran investigation were on display. The items were all pre-Columbian, many of them Mayan, and are forbidden to export except with the express permission of the Secretariat of Culture.