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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A key defendant in the investigation into the trafficking of Southwest artifacts is expected to take a plea deal.
Durango, Colo., antiquities dealer Vern Crites surrendered five truckloads of American Indian relics in August.
Related:
Defense lawyers seek info on ex-artifacts dealer
Defense lawyers want to know if the federal government ever promised leniency to a former artifacts dealer behind a sting operation that swept up more than two dozen people on charges of trafficking in American Indian relics.A defense lawyer revealed in federal court in Salt Lake City Thursday that he is negotiating a plea deal for the 74-year-old Crites, who bragged in secret recordings about having sold pottery sets for $500,000.
Lawyers expect another handful of defendants to follow suit and take plea deals.
Magistrate Samuel Alba called together the lawyers and prosecutors Thursday to sort the status of nearly two dozen cases.
The case broke last summer with the arrests of 26 people in Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.
Two committed suicide, and another two have pleaded guilty.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
