Mostafa Deh Pahlavan, the head of the Institute of Archaeology at the University of Tehran, blamed the Ministry of Cultural Heritage as the main culprit for the failure to pay attention to the preservation of historical artifacts, and said that more than 70 percent of people active in the “smuggling mafia” do not have financial problems. He added that cases have been seen in which a member of parliament and the Friday prayer leader were present in the search for treasure and in illegal excavations.