Police on Friday detained at least two people in an operation against smugglers of historical artifacts, according to a police source.

Simultaneous raids were launched at various locations over the past week after police from the Department of Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime received a tip, the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media, said.

A total of 268 historical artifacts dating back to up to 4,500 years ago, including from the Lidyan and Hellenistic periods, were recovered.

One of the artifacts was a Greek decree prepared on the order of Sultan Abdulmecid I of the Ottoman Empire for the first Greek newspaper.

The operations come a few weeks after Istanbul police confiscated 1,512 artifacts ranging from Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman coins to valuable documents from the 19th century in anti-smuggling operations.