Metal detector

Police in Turkey have arrested four people in relation to the desecration of Greek community cemetery in Istanbul last week.

Last Friday morning, staff at Aghios Eleftherios Cemetery, which serves the community of Tatavla in the Kurtulus district, noticed that holes had been dug within a fenced-off area of the cemetery.

No damage had been done to graves or the cemetery chapel.

The Culture and Tourism Ministry has requested social media organizations to monitor and block posts by treasure hunters who broadcast their illegal excavations on social media.

A 53-year-old man has appeared before a prosecutor in the northern city of Kavala on suspicion of conducting an illegal excavation at the archaeological site of Philippi.

Police said the man, equipped with a metal detector, earphones, a small carving tool and an improvised digging tool, conducted the illegal dig on the site on Wednesday evening.

An appeals court in Thessaloniki has handed a 74-year-old man a four-year jail sentence, which he can buy out, and five co-accused a 12-month prison term suspended for 3 years for their role in an illegal excavation for gold coins in a protected structure in Veria.

Authorities in Bulgarian town of Stara Zagora have seized more than 700 ancient artifacts and arrested two suspects, the country's Ministry of Interior said in a statement on Thursday. 

Police in Thessaloniki confiscated a treasure trove of valuable ancient objects on Friday after a raiding the home of a 68-year-old man who was charged with illegally trading in antiquities.

Police arrested two people in Attica and Iraklio on Crete on Friday and are looking for another eight on charges of belonging to a gang that dealt in the illegal excavation and sale of antiquities.

All 10 suspects, aged between 24 and 62, had reportedly been conducting illegal excavations on Crete since June and sold their finds on the black market.

A 51-year-old man was being questioned on Saturday by officers of the Kavala Coast Guard after a search on his home in the coastal area of Perigiali turned up a wealth of illegally acquired ancient artifacts, weapons and explosives.

Authorities in the island of Crete have arrested a Spanish man for attempting to loot an archaeological site near the town of Hania.

A guard spotted the 44-year-old who was using a metal detector at the site of Falassarna, an ancient harbor town on the island's northwest coast, and alerted the police who arrested the suspect.

Illegal trade in antiquities flourishes in Bulgaria, where "treasure hunters have little to fear of authorities," Austrian newspaper Der Standard says in an article.