[MSN] Looters plunder Peru's antique treasures.

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Looters plunder Peru's antique treasures 
Web posted at: 4/2/2007 8:13:16
Source ::: Agencies 
LIMA . Smugglers are sapping Peru's ancient heritage, with statues, gold
finery and other treasures stolen to meet orders on the Internet or sold on
the street, Peruvian and international authorities said. 

Peru is the country worst hit in the region by thefts of ancient objects-far
more than Bolivia and Mexico, two other nations with a heritage of
pre-Colombian antiquities, an Interpol official here, Eladio Zamudio,
recently said. 

The international police agency is investigating several cases of stolen art
objects from Peru which have passed through the country's porous borders to
end up in Europe, the US and elsewhere in South America. 

The head of the National Culture Institute, Cecilia Bakula, has denounced
"the organised gangs that are rampant not only in drugs but in stealing
cultural heritage." 

In one symbolic case, police in March caught thieves trying to sell an old
flag to an antiquarian in Lima. It was the same one the Peruvian leader Jose
de San Martin had used when proclaiming independence from Spain in 1820. 

Mexico arrests suspected 

drug kingpin 


TIJUANA, Mexico . Mexican police arrested suspected drug kingpin Victor
Magno Escobar in Tijuana on Saturday, the first major detention since Mexico
sent troops to the border city at the start of the year. 

Considered a leader of the Tijuana cartel that dominates drug smuggling
along California's border with Mexico, Escobar was arrested after police
surprised a safe house in the city early on Saturday morning, a police
spokesman said. 

Police said 29-year-old Escobar, known by his nickname "El Pareja" or
partner, was caught along with eight other men, including three police
officers, and around 30 weapons including assault weapons and handguns.
Escobar was flown to Mexico City to face charges, police said. 

"Escobar was chief assassin for, and a leader of, the Tijuana cartel," said
the police spokesman, who declined to be identified. US officials say the
drug gang, also known as the Arellano-Felix cartel, has been seriously
weakened. 

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