Customs agents kidnapped a meteorite that a man from Córdoba wanted to smuggle into the country from Chile and that he was transporting in his car when trying to cross the Agua Negra International Pass, in the middle of the Andes Mountains, in the province of San Juan.
During the inspection, the agents distinguished that the driver was carrying a large quantity of stones in the back seat of the vehicle with Argentine registration and told him that it was necessary for him to discard them to enter Argentina for phytosanitary reasons.
According to an official statement, the man from Córdoba agreed to discard them except in the case of one of them with a shiny appearance that specialized agents of the General Directorate of Customs-AFIP suspected that it could be a cultural or patrimonial asset after examining it.
The staff retained the rock of 12.5 kilos and 27 centimeters long and sent it to Buenos Aires to be analyzed by the Argentine Mining Geological Service (Segemar), which concluded that it was a meteorite.
In their report, the Segemar scientists confirmed “the presence of depressions that correspond to the regmaglipts formed by the ablation when the meteorite penetrates the Earth’s atmosphere.”
They also ensured that its composition had an iron/nickel ratio not found on Earthaccording to the statement released today by Customs.
“Given that Law 26,306 establishes that meteorites that enter Argentine territory are cultural property, the celestial object in question was, definitely, of prohibited import, as indicated in Article 610 of the Customs Code,” it was specified.
The measure adopted is also part of the Resolution on Illicit Traffic in Cultural Property of the World Customs Organization.
