Smuggler Who Had Artifacts in His Luggage Gets Prison

A plot to smuggle nearly 600 ancient Egyptian artifacts through New York's JFK Airport that unraveled when a suitcase full of looted treasures still smelling of earth was discovered, exposing a web of tomb raiders and forged histories, has resulted in a prison term. Ashraf Omar Eldarir, a US citizen originally from Egypt, was sentenced Wednesday in federal court to serve six months after pleading guilty to smuggling charges. He was stopped in early 2020 with suitcases stuffed with relics, USA Today reports. Prosecutors said Eldarir coordinated directly with tomb raiders in Egypt, choosing which items to purchase via cellphone videos shared from grave sites.

Eldarir's dealings were hardly subtle. Prosecutors described his operation as "blatant," with Eldarir marking which objects he wanted and forging documents to invent their history, often claiming they belonged to his grandfather and left Egypt before it became illegal to export such items in 1948. Over eight years, he was accused of selling around 500 antiquities through prominent New York auction houses, using fake provenance paperwork and taking in more than $600,000.

"These cultural treasures traveled across centuries and millennia, only to end up unceremoniously stuffed in a dirt-caked suitcase at JFK," a US attorney said in 2020 when Eldarir was indicted, per the New York Times. Judge Rachel Kovner declined to fine Eldarir this week, noting that Egyptian authorities had already seized his assets.