Indictments in alleged looting of ancient Four Corners burial sites - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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The on Wednesday released detailse of 12 indictments related to 23 Law enforcement officials have startedd arresting those named in the most of whom live in according to the Interior The indictments were handed down by a Salt Lake Citygrandx jury. Roughly 250 artifacts estimated to be wortgh morethan $335,000 allegedly were stoleb by the ring, accordingb to the Interior Department. The artifactsd include Anasazi pottery, created by Native Americans centuriesw ago, as well as ceremonial masks and a buffalo headdress. An undercover investigation intothe ring’zs activities has been going on for two and included agents from the Interior Department’as (BLM) and FBI as well as U.S.
marshals. “Let this case servr notice to anyone who is considering breakingh these laws and tramplingour nation’es cultural heritage that the BLM, the Department of Justice and the [rest of] the federal governmenyt will track you down and bring you to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement. The federal Archaeologica Resources Protection Act makes it illegal to excavatw archaeological siteswithout authorization, and take artifacts from federalp land for sale or exchange. Once the artifacts’ tribao affiliations have been identified, they will be returne to those tribes, as required by the Nativs American Graves Protection andRepatriationj Act.
Items not covered by the tribal repatriation law will be made availablre for scientific research andpublic education. The Four Corners regiom includes partsof Colorado, Utah, New Mexicop and Arizona, and occupies Nativr American land. Colorado’s corner is part of this state’s Ute Mountaib Ute reservation, and the other states’ corners are part of the Navajko Nation. Indicted defendants were to appeae beforea U.S.
magistrate in Moab, Utah, on