Tomb robbers busted in Guilin

A gang of tomb robbers has been arrested after raiding several ancient tombs and selling cultural relics online in Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, according to a report from State broadcaster China Central Television.

A total of 42 suspects were captured and more than 160 precious cultural relics including a five-clawed dragon robe, a silver gilt phoenix coronet from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), vases from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and ceramic pots from the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220) were retrieved, according to police in Xing'an county.

In October 2020, a suspect surnamed Tang, who was selling cultural relics in a hotel, was apprehended in an operation after police were informed.

A silver gilt coronet, recovered in this operation, caught the attention of the police who later invited archaeologists to examine it. They found it was highly likely that these cultural relics were robbed from tombs.

Even though Tang refused to talk, police managed to find suspicious tools including Luoyang shovels, a handy tool mainly used in archaeological excavations, in a search at his residence. Two of Tang's close contacts, surnamed Zhang and Lyu, were labeled as suspects and closely watched, and arrested months later following Tang's arrest.

More relics surfaced following Zhang and Lyu's arrest. Cultural relics such as ceramic pots and vases, and tools that might be used to excavate tombs were found in their residences. More importantly, police found a list of contacts in Lyu's mobile phone, which contained many people with Chinese character "tu", meaning earth. After investigation, the police found that "tu" was an abbreviation for "tufuzi", a folk name for tomb robbers.

More leads concerning cultural relics came to light, delaying the investigation.

"When it comes to cultural relics, we are all outsiders. And identification of them requires professional knowledge," said Zhang Qiang, captain of the No 9 brigade of criminal investigation of the public security bureau of Guilin.

It took the investigation team more than a year to arrest all the gang members and close this case.

Police found this gang of tomb robbers was active across the country.

According to Qi Bing, deputy captain of criminal investigation at the public security bureau of Guilin, only tombs of high-ranking officials were targeted.

"It is heartbreaking to see that the tomb robberies caused great damage to the cultural relics. Most of the cultural relics were destroyed during violent excavation activities since the robbers only took what they believed were the most valuable pieces," said Wen Haibo, a deputy of the criminal investigation brigade of Xing'an county public security bureau.