In the port of St. Petersburg, customs officials prevented an attempt to illegally export a unique cosmic object — an ancient meteorite. Its weight exceeds 2 tons, and the perpetrators tried to send it abroad, passing it off as an ordinary garden decoration, Russian media report.
According to available information, the criminals disguised the artifact by securing it on a metal stand and wrapping it in wooden panels. However, attentive inspectors noticed discrepancies during the cargo inspection. As a result, the meteorite was seized and sent for examination.
Experts from the Central Expert and Forensic Management established that the age of this cosmic object is about 4.5 billion years. The meteorite, named "Aletai," has immense historical and scientific significance.
The estimated market value of the find was set at 323 million rubles.
The name "Aletai" is associated with the location of its original fall, which is in the northern part of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China. Currently, law enforcement agencies are investigating the circumstances of how this giant fragment ended up in Russia and who was behind the attempt to export it.
