A shop was opened next to the cultural protection unit to cover the burrowing hole, and the gang stole cultural relics such as the Ashoka Tower and the Golden Bone of Buddha

  Taking cover of renting a house and opening a store near a cultural protection unit, using a theodolite to locate and secretly excavate a burrow, a gang was sentenced for theft of several ancient pagoda palaces in Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces.

  The recent judgment issued by the China Judgment Documents Network shows that among the monuments stolen by the gang, there are 4 national key cultural relics protection units, 2 provincial cultural relics protection units, and 1 municipal cultural relics protection unit; the stolen cultural relics include Suspected relics, golden bones of Buddha, silver Ashoka Tower, golden coffin, silver coffin, bronze coffin, gilt gold coffin, bronze mirror and other precious cultural relics.

  The gang resold the stolen cultural relics for profit, and after a series of reversals, some of the cultural relics were purchased and offered home for worship for 23 million yuan. After the case, the buyer took the initiative to hand over the cultural relics he had purchased. After the appraisal, there were 2 first-level cultural relics, 2 second-level cultural relics, 19 third-level cultural relics, and 27 general cultural relics.

Rent a hotel to cover a hole

  The "(2019) Shan 04 Xingchu No. 34" judgment shows that there are as many as 23 accused in this case. Among them, the principal offender Wei Yonggang was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the crime of stealing ancient cultural sites, and was released on January 26, 2011. But shortly after, he "regained his old career".

  The court heard that in July and August 2011, Wei Yonggang and his associates planned to steal the North Tower of Xingping, Shaanxi Province after stepping in advance. The tower is also known as Qingfan Temple Tower. It was a provincial cultural relics protection unit at the time of the incident. On March 5, 2013, the tower was upgraded to a national key cultural relics protection unit.

  The Wei Yonggang gang rented a private house on North Street in Xingping City, and arranged for the defendant Wei Shujun to use the "breaking a pie" as a cover, to find workers, and to dig a silver ashoka pagoda in the north tower palace. A stone tower, a copper coffin, a glazed bottle (with suspected relics, golden bones of Buddha), suspected mani cake, several pieces of copper money and other cultural relics.

  In November 2013, Wei Yonggang and others conspired to rob the ancient pagoda in Xunyi County, rented a private house near the ancient pagoda in Xunyi, and used the steamed steamed bun as a cover to dig the ancient pagoda in Xunyi. It is the third batch of national key cultural relics protection units announced by the State Council.

  In the meantime, Wei Yonggang used the theodolite to locate and guide the direction of digging. About a month later, the pagoda palace was opened, and the gang stole relics, bronze coffins (containing silver coffins), glass bottles (containing suspected relics), and small cultural relics.

  At the beginning of 2015, Wei Yonggang and others discussed the theft of the Binta Digong Palace (the third batch of national key cultural relics protection units announced by the State Council) in Bin County. The facade room on the first floor of the courtyard of Binxian Medicine Company was renovated and licensed for business. The waitress was recruited locally. The restaurant opened at the end of April 2015 and was named "Chuanxiang Restaurant".

  Under the cover of the hotel, Wei Yonggang and others dig a hole from the underground next to the bathroom of the hotel to Binta every night at around 10 o'clock in the morning, and put the excavated soil in a plastic woven bag and transport it away by car.

  Around October 2015, Wei Yonggang and others opened the Binta Palace and stolen the sarcophagus, gold coffin, silver coffin, copper coffin, gilt coffin, bronze mirror, suspected relics and other rare cultural relics in the palace, and then filled it with soil The buried cave left Binxian.

  In addition to the above criminal activities, the court also found out that in 2012, 2013, and 2014, the defendant Wei Yonggang and others in Pucheng County, Qishan County, and Shanxi Daixian County of Shaanxi Province rented houses and drilled holes against Pu. The South Tower of Chengxian County, the Taiping Temple Pagoda of Qishan County, and the Ashoka Pagoda of Daixian County were robbed. However, because the first two ancient pagoda palaces were already stolen and the Ashoka pagoda palace was not found, Wei Yonggang and others were unable to steal cultural relics.

  In 2016, Wei Yonggang and others conspired to steal the graveyard of Dongguo Village in Yuncheng, Shanxi Province. The gang funded the construction of a new house in the Ding Xuejun family in Dongguo Village and built a basement in it. In October of that year, Wei Yonggang successively found people to divide the work and dig holes to dig the ancient tombs of Dongguo Village, but until Wei Yonggang and others were captured in early 2018, they had not dug cultural relics.

 Someone spent 23 million yuan to buy the cultural relics of the palace to worship

  The court heard that Wei Yonggang and other 15 defendants secretly excavated the underground tunnel after renting a private house near the cultural relics protection unit, and robbed a total of seven times. Among them, four of them belonged to the state-level key cultural relics protection unit. Two provincial cultural relics protection units and one municipal cultural relics protection unit (including six ancient cultural sites and one ancient tomb site).

  The gang stolen the cultural relics that the country did not excavate and sold them for profit. After the case, there were 77 cultural relics recovered by the public security organs, including 4 first-level cultural relics, 4 second-level cultural relics, and 24 third-level cultural relics. 45 general cultural relics.

  The verdict shows that the "offline" of the aforementioned Wei Yonggang gang's sales includes a total of eight people including Ye Zhengbing.

  The court heard that after the Wei Yonggang gang robbed the Xingping North Pagoda Palace, Wei Yonggang contacted the middle introducer and sold the stolen silver Ashoka Pagoda, stone pagoda and glazed bottle (incomplete, installed There are suspected relics, Buddha gold bones), mani biscuits, and copper coins sold to Liu (the bail pending trial, the cultural relics have been recovered). The relics recovered have been identified: two first-level cultural relics; two third-level cultural relics. A stolen copper coffin in the tower palace was bought by Zhang Jianyong from the gang at a price of 400,000 yuan, but Zhang Jianyong was dead and the police are still tracing the whereabouts of the copper coffin.

  The stolen cultural relics in the ancient pagoda palace in Xunyi are reclining Buddha statues, copper coffins (containing silver coffins), glazed bottles (containing suspected relics), small Buddha statues, etc. The cultural relics identified by the Shaanxi Cultural Relics Appraisal Research Center 2 second-level cultural relics; 3 third-level cultural relics; 18 general cultural relics.

  The verdict shows that the gang excavated the cultural relics, and the highest transaction price came from the Binta Digong in Bin County, including sarcophagi, gold coffins, silver coffins, copper coffins, gilt coffins, bronze mirrors, suspected relics and other rare cultural relics. After many people fought back and forth, Ruan Moumou finally bought the batch of cultural relics for worship at a price of 23 million yuan. On October 11, 2018, Ruan Moumou turned in the cultural relics he purchased. After appraisal, there were 2 first-level cultural relics; 2 second-level cultural relics; 19 third-level cultural relics; and 27 general cultural relics.

  On April 21, 2020, in the Xianyang Intermediate People's Court of First Instance, 5 defendants including Wei Yonggang committed the crime of digging ancient cultural sites and ancient tombs; 10 defendants including Wei Shujun committed the crime of digging ancient cultural sites; defendant Ye Zhengbing and others 8 Man commits the crime of reselling cultural relics. The 23 defendants' sentences ranged from "sentences of three suspended sentences" to fifteen years in prison.

  Surging news reporter Wang Jian