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Jakarta airport foils human skull smuggling attempts

Customs and excise officers at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport have foiled attempts to smuggle six human skulls out of the country to Amsterdam, the Netherlands

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Wed, June 17, 2015

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Jakarta airport foils human skull smuggling attempts

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ustoms and excise officers at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport have foiled attempts to smuggle six human skulls out of the country to Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

The skulls were apparently sent from an unregistered address, the head of customs and excise office Okto Irianto said on Wednesday as quoted by tempo.co

He said the six human skulls had been delivered to the airport in two stages. The first package containing four skulls, which were packed with saucepans, was sent in February, while the remaining two skulls were delivered in March.

'€œIt was stated that the last package contained statues,'€ Okto said.

Noticing something suspicious about the packages, customs and excise officers opened them to conduct a physical examination.

Okto said his office was working with the directorate for the protection of cultural heritage and museums to identify the age of the skulls and determine whether they were ancient or not.

If proven that the skulls are heritage property, the smugglers could face a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to Rp 1.5 billion (US$112,465) for violating the 2010 Cultural Heritage Law.

Okto said his office did not know the reason that someone would attempt to export the skulls.

'€œWe are not sure, but it is probably for a collection or research purposes,'€ he said. (ika)(+++)

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