EL PASO, Texas – Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI) returned 523 pre-Hispanic archeological items to Mexican officers Thursday throughout a repatriation ceremony on the Mexican Consulate.
The items embrace stone arrowheads, knife blades and instruments that had been illegally imported into america from Mexico and provided on the market. The pre-Hispanic interval refers back to the time earlier than the Spanish conquests within the Western Hemisphere.
Erik P. Breitzke, particular agent accountable for HSI El Paso, and National Park Service representatives offered the relics to Mexican Consul Common Mauricio Ibarra Ponce de León, who accepted them on behalf of the Authorities of Mexico.
Particular brokers assigned to the HSI Alpine, Texas, workplace started an investigation in April 2016, into the stolen artifacts after Nationwide Park Service rangers found a few of the artifacts in Large Bend Nationwide Park. Via a multi-agency investigation, the artifacts had been seized in August 2016, and forfeited in Could 2017, after the person who trafficked them was convicted of smuggling items into america, a felony, within the U.S. District Courtroom for the Western District of Texas.
“The theft of cultural property and artifacts will not be merely against the law, it’s an offense towards a nation’s historical past,” mentioned Breitzke. “HSI is a world chief in investigating crimes involving the unlawful importation and distribution of cultural property. We’re dedicated to working with our regulation enforcement companions and international governments to make sure that people don’t revenue from these prison acts.”
“The return of those pre-Hispanic items highlights the energetic cooperation between the governments of Mexico and america within the safety of cultural items, in addition to a dedication for historic and cultural legacies to return to their locations of origin,” Ibarra Ponce de León mentioned.
“The Nationwide Park Service has been dedicated to preserving and defending pure and cultural sources for greater than a century,” mentioned Nationwide Park Service Deputy Director Shawn Benge. “We’re honored to have participated within the multi-agency investigation effort that led to immediately’s repatriation of a number of hundred artifacts to the Authorities and folks of Mexico. It’s a collective accomplishment that demonstrates our shared mission to protect historical past for generations to come back.”
As part of the Division of Homeland Safety, HSI has distinctive authorities to grab cultural property and antiquities introduced into america illegally and guarantee their return to their respective nations. Regardless of more and more aggressive enforcement efforts to stop the theft of cultural heritage and different antiquities, the illicit motion of such objects throughout worldwide borders continues to problem world regulation enforcement efforts to cut back the trafficking of such property. Trafficking in antiquities is estimated to be a multi-billion-dollar transnational prison enterprise.
HSI is dedicated to pursuing a method to fight transnational organized crime associated to the illicit trafficking of cultural artifacts by concentrating on excessive precedence organizations and strengthening worldwide regulation enforcement partnerships. The general public, authorities and personal establishments usually assist HSI in figuring out, investigating, and prosecuting illicitly trafficked cultural property. If in case you have details about the illicit commerce of cultural property or artwork, name the ICE Tip Line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or report suggestions online.
HSI is the investigative arm for the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety and performs a number one position in prison investigations that contain the illicit distribution of cultural property, in addition to the unlawful trafficking of art work, specializing in recovering works which have been reported misplaced or stolen. HSI’s Worldwide Operations, by its 80 attaché places of work in 53 nations, works carefully with international governments to conduct joint investigations.