Posted on 02/25/2005 11:26:52 AM PST by nickcarraway
BANGKOK, Thailand: A Thai man who offered dinosaur fossils and valuable antiques for sale on the Internet has been arrested for illegally trading in ancient artifacts and art, police said Friday.
Acting on a tip-off from U.S. authorities, undercover police arrested Piriya Wachachitphan, 25, on Monday and confiscated 108 large dinosaur fossils and five boxes containing smaller pieces from his home in Bangkok, said police Lt. Gen. Thani Somboonsab.
"It is the first time that police have arrested a smuggler of dinosaur fossils in Thailand,'' he said.
Police said Piriya had also sold more than 1,000 cultural artifacts, including Buddha statues, worth more than US$200,000 (euro150,000). He was free on bail pending trial.
If found guilty of trading in ancient artifacts, Piriya faces a maximum seven years in jail and a fine of up to 700,000 baht (US$18,000; euro13,500).
At a news conference announcing the arrest, Mark Robinson, a Bangkok-based official from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, describes the arrest as "quite significant.''
"Usually we find people selling one or two pieces,'' he said.
Thai and U.S. police had been cooperating for eight months on the case since American authorities seized stolen antiques exported from Thailand, said Robinson. Some of the items originated in Cambodia, where rampant plundering of cultural artifacts has been going on for decades.
Police said Piriya told them the dinosaur fossils, over 100 million years old, were purchased from villagers in the northeastern provinces of Kalasin and Khon Kaen, an area of growing archaeological importance.--
"At a news conference announcing the arrest, Mark Robinson, a Bangkok-based official from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, describes the arrest as "quite significant.'' "
Unless there were nuclear secrets etched in code on these fossils, I have no idea why the Dept. of Homeland Security is at all involved in this. Kind of frightening if they can step into any investigation such as this. If someone is illegally using US trade, wouldn't that be a matter for the FBI?
I can't believe its against the law to find an old bone in the dirt no be able to sell it. Anything else we find we can keep, what the heck is Homeland Security involved for?
Reminds me of the flintstones... Anyway the Homeland security has got to have better things to do than harass bone collectors, sheesh.
Hey Laz, doesn't your formerly-underage Thai hooker hang out with this guy?
And the press account never questions if, in fact, any of these artifacts were stolen.
It is ASSUMED that governments can declare anything contrband and seize it.
merci beni.
So is this the guy who is selling FAKES, or this guy selling REAL art treasures and bones?
Wouldn't a bone fossil be an artifact only if it is a man-made and counterfeit bone fossil? If his stuff is genuine, then booking the guy for dealing in artifacts wouldn't hold water.
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