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Feds Want to Deport Mongolian Dinosaur
 [Dallas News] The feds maintain that the 70 million-year-old skull that belonged to a relative of Tyrannosaurus rex was among a horde of dinosaur fossils stolen from Mongolia years ago.Interesting we have Feds worried about 70-million year old hordes. The government says a U.S. fossil dealer traveled to Mongolia to obtain fossils and then shipped them to China to avoid a U.S. Customs inspection. From there, the fossils were shipped to the United Kingdom and then into the U.S., the forfeiture lawsuit says. Illegal immigrants, all! The stolen property act was used to recover Nazi-looted art as well as antiquities stolen from the Middle East, Turkey and Greece and "has a richer body of precedent that a prosecutor can draw on." However, the attorney said he and his client will fight on. So far, he appears to be the only person putting up a fight over a Mongolian dinosaur fossil. Since federal authorities began a crackdown in 2012 on the little-known black market in dinosaur bones, more than 18 specimens have been returned to Mongolia. Two men were convicted in federal court of smuggling fossils into the U.S. Lessee, who was POTUS in 2012? Who ran the DOJ? Actor Nicolas Cage was among buyers who agreed to part with their bataar skulls. After having paid six figures for it. Will the Feds help recover the losses of U.S. citizens? The stolen property act is one of the key federal laws that address antiquities trafficking, a New York lawyer wrote in an article last year. An expert in that area, said in the article that the art and antiquities trade is the world's third largest black market, behind only drugs and arms, with an annual estimated value of up to $8 billion. How we doin' on the drugs and weapons black market? What's the value of human trafficking/illegal immigration, I wonder? The law professor, said fossil smuggling may seem at first like a victimless crime. The harm, however, is in the fact that scientists are unable to study the items and give them historical context due to the handiwork of "unskilled looters," he said. Does the skull in question have a home waiting for it in Mongolia, or is it destined for the Obama Presidential Library? There's no indication that the government is seeking criminal charges against (the Texas former owner of the artifact). How about the stuff in the Smithsonian? British Museum? Posted by: Bobby 2018-04-16 |
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