The law enforcement officers in the southern province of Bushehr have seized a stone tablet with hieroglyph inscription, 2 Achaemenid golden bracelets and 3 bronze daggers and as many as 80 coins dating from the Achaemenid to Islamic period from 6 smugglers who planned to whisk them away to abroad.

Following a tip-off and some surveillance, the police officers managed to bust the ring in Bushehr, making 6 arrests on charges of trying to smuggle historical relics out of the country, said a police commander in the provincial headquarters.

Experts from Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (CHTO) confirmed all the artifacts dated from the Achaemenid Dynasty to the Islamic period in the 6th century. The stone inscription measures 80 by 20 cm, depicting sword motifs and lines in hieroglyph.

The smugglers had also plundered 9 earthen vessels from Jiroft in the neighboring Kerman province. Some of the coins date back to 1600 to 2000 B.C.