article_snippet: According to the Russian Federal Drug Control Service, ISIS has turned the ancient city of Nineveh, adjacent to Turkish borders, is a centre for ISIS heroin trade, MME reports..
article_snippet: Looted treasure: This gold-plated bronze figurine was stolen from a museum in Hama, western Syria .
article_snippet: Last month Last month was revealed that militants fighting for ISIS in Syria are making millions of pounds selling ancient statues and mosaics to wealthy Westerners using a complex system of smugglers and middle men.
article_snippet: Looted from ancient buildings in ISIS strongholds, such as the group's de facto capital city Raqqa, the antiquities are up to 10,000-years-old and can exchange hands for more than $1 million each.
article_snippet: A Syrian police officer patrols the ancient of Palmyra to protect the ancient of Palmyra ruins from looters and smugglers .
article_snippet: The most expensive items are covertly smuggled overseas - usually on the orders of wealthy Europeans - but there is also a lucrative trade in less historically important objects, which often find The most expensive items way into tourist shops and markets in neighbouring Lebanon and Turkey.
article_snippet: The trade in antiquities is one of ISIS primary sources of funding, along with oil and ransom payments, and is estimated to fills the terrorists coffers with tens of millions of pounds every year.
article_snippet: The finer points of ISIS trade in antiquities was uncovered in an investigation by the BBC.
article_snippet: The finer points of ISIS trade in antiquities revealed that ISIS militants charge smugglers 20 per cent on the sale of ancient items found or looted in territory under ISIS control.
article_snippet: If the smugglers decide not to buy the items, the smugglers are promptly smashed to pieces as examples of idolatry, regardless of the smugglers historic significance.
article_snippet: However one expected source of income is the looting of antiques from the many ancient religious sites in areas under its command.