[MSN] Federal agents accuse smuggler of stealing N.M. artifacts

[MSN]

Federal agents accuse smuggler of stealing N.M. artifacts
 

SANTA FE (AP) - Federal agents have raided several Southern California
museums in search of stolen artifacts -- some of them from New Mexico.

Among the artifacts recovered are a ceramic pot and a 1,000-year-old ladle
looted from New Mexico's El Malpais National Monument.

The head of the Museum of New Mexico's Office of Archaeological Studies,
Eric Blinman, says smuggling artifacts from New Mexico public lands is a
problem. He says there's so much public land and so few enforcement
officials in any of the federal agencies that people are getting away with
the looting, at least for now.

Removing archaeological resources from public lands without a permit is a
violation of the 1979 Archaeological Resources Protection Act.

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