After an 11-year legal case and the cooperation between the Spanish and Colombian governments, 691 ancient artifacts returned to Colombia after being smuggled out by drug traffickers.

The artifacts date back to 1,400 BCE, according to the BBC, and were retrieved during a Spanish police investigation into drug cartels. The Colombian embassy in Madrid told the BBC that the artifacts were smuggled by a money launderer linked to drug cartels.

Although the police operation and the seizure of the objects happened eleven years ago, the artifacts could not be legally returned to Colombia until June, following a Spanish court order. During the 11 years the case unfolded, the Museum of America in Madrid held the salvaged artifacts and had them on display.

According to the EFE news agency, the Colombian government showcased 50 of the artifacts returned. The Colombian chancellor, Maria Angela Holguin, said, "words are not enough" to describe the pieces that belong to Colombia's historical patrimony, spanning 10 centuries.

The artifacts were part of a larger cache of 885 pieces retrieved by the Spanish police in 2003 during Operation "Florencia," an action against drug cartels and money laundering.

Chancellor Holguin praised the Museum of America's care for the pieces and said they were returned to Colombia in a speedy manner, asserting that the salvage of these pieces is part of a larger attempt by the government to retrieve artifacts of Colombia's historical heritage that "left in an illegal manner."

In a separate statement, Colombia's minister of culture, Mariana Garces Cordoba, said, "what leaves the country in an irregular manner will be pursued by authorities."

Around 80 percent of the pieces were very small while the rest were large funeral urns and musical instruments, some belonging to the San Agustin culture. The director general of the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History, Fabian Sanabria, said that next year they will hold a "grand exhibition" of the artifacts.