It was on July 10 that the Coast Guard during a check found divers who salvaged objects from a wreck outside Öland. During a house search on Thursday, a large number of objects were found that are suspected to originate from wrecks classified as ancient monuments in the Baltic Sea.

- They seem to have engaged in what appears to be relatively large-scale systematic wreck looting and disturbance of several wrecks, including wrecks of older warships in the Baltic Sea, says chamber prosecutor Robert Knutsson who is the preliminary investigation leader at the Public Prosecutor's Office in Kalmar.

Fittings must be analyzed

Extensive work is now beginning to identify and analyze a large number of seizures that have been made. The request for a public defender has been submitted to Kalmar District Court and the suspects must be heard in the presence of a defender.

- Now work is underway to map the activities of the suspects. We work together with the police and the Coast Guard, who have taken their task very seriously and in a very good way handled the issue and added proper resources, says Robert Knutsson.