TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - A Canadian resident has been fined $25,000 and sentenced to five years of probation for smuggling dinosaur fossils out of China and trying to sell them in Arizona.
Federal prosecutors say 36-year-old Jun Yang of Richmond, British Columbia, previously pleaded guilty to smuggling.
They say Yang is president of Arctic Products, Inc.
During the 2015 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, prosecutors say Yang displayed one Psittacosaurus fossil for sale for $15,000 and 16 Hadrosaur egg fossils for $450 apiece.
Yang told undercover investigators the egg fossils were from a “duck-billed” dinosaur in China while the Psittacosaurus fossil was 100 to 130 million years old and dug from the Henan province in central China.
Yang admitted he illegally removed the fossils from China and smuggled them out in shipping containers.
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