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Feds bust group trying to smuggle Ancient Egyptian mummy coffins

...A group of Egyptian antiquities dealers have been charged with illegally smuggling ancient funerary objects into the U.S., authorities said Thursday.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn say Mousa "Morris" Khouli, the owner of Windsor Antiques in Manhattan, conspired with dealers in Michigan and Dubai to smuggle sarcophagi and other artifacts for a collector in Virginia.

Khouli, 37, is charged with trying to dupe Customs officials by labeling shipments of coffins and other items as "antiques" and "wood panels," prosecutors said.

He allegedly bought the items from Salem Alshdaifat, who runs Holyland Numismatics in West Bloomfield, Mich., and Ayman Ramadan, an antiquity dealers in the United Arab Emirates who helped him ship the items to the U.S.

Between October 2008 and November 2009, Khouli allegedly sold a Greco-Roman sarcophagus, Egyptian funerary boats and limestone figures to collector Joseph Lewis, 54, of Chesterfield, Va...

Read entire article at New York Daily News