Smuggled pre-Hispanic-era artefacts repatriated by the US to Mexico
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
The investigations arm of the US Department of Homeland Security (HSI) has returned 523 artefacts predating the Spanish conquest to Mexico in a repatriation ceremony at the Mexican Consulate in El Paso, Texas, officials say.
The pieces were seized in August 2016 after an investigation that was triggered months earlier by the discovery of some of the artefacts in Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas. The objects include stone arrowheads, knife blades and tools that were illegally imported into the US from Mexico and offered for sale, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced.