Authorities bust relic smuggling in Shanxi

TAIYUAN - Police in northern China's Shanxi province have seized over 5,000 historical artifacts and arrested hundreds of people in a crackdown on tomb raiding and relic smuggling this year.

The operation, which began in March, has been the province's largest police operation of its kind. The police campaign has helped retrieve 5,730 historical artifacts, 33 of them under national-level cultural protection.

The number of suspects arrested and the number of relics retrieved both surpassed the totals between 2013 and 2017, the provincial Bureau of Public Security said.