Fox News: One in every 146 Bulgarians a Looter

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Fox News is carrying a story to gladden the heart of every US coin collector ('Treasure hunters strip Bulgaria of its ancient treasures, destroying a cultural legacy',October 26, 2012), looters digging for ancient artefacts to sell on the black market are keeping the market well supplied. Thieves dig pits into archaeological sites looking for ancient coins and jewellery, everything else, including ceramic vessels and other historically significant artefacts of less commercial attraction, is smashed to pieces.

Police reports indicate that every day up to 50,000 people are engaged in treasure hunting raids across Bulgaria, a country of 7.3 million. According to Angel Papalezov, a senior police officer, hundreds of thousands of artifacts are smuggled out of the country every year, with dealers hauling in up to $40 million. 

Dealers and collectors are willing customers of this destructive commerce. 50 000 in a population of (recte) 7,037,935 is one in 141 people.  So how many productive archaeological sites would there have to be (have had to have been) in Bulgaria to sustain such a level of activity?

On the other hand, how sure are Fox News of their facts? According to the book produced in 2000 by the Center for the Study of Democracy (Bulgaria),'Corruption and trafficking : monitoring and prevention : assessment methodologies and strategies for counteracting transborder crime in Bulgaria' by Boyko Todorov, Ognian Shentov, Alexander Stoyanov - ISBN: 954477078X 9789544770785 (p. 33): 

"by rough estimates, some 3,500 people are actively engaged in treasure-hunting in this country..."

There is quite a difference between 50 000 and three and a half. That is still one in 2010 people. Also it's about a third of the number of metal detectorists believed to be out taking artefacts out of the archaeological sites and assemblages in England and Wales. Since England and Bulgaria have approximately the same area (130 000 km2 and 111000 km2), the damage to the preserved archaeological sites in England from artefact hunting is three times as great.