FORT SMITH — An Arkansas man has been sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay fines and restitution for illegally excavating prehistoric bluff shelters in the Ozark-St. Francis National Forest western Arkansas.
Online court records show David Tudor was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Fort Smith after pleading guilty in April as part of a plea agreement.
He also was fined $2,500, paid nearly $12,500 restitution and forfeited 2,831 artifacts that he had taken from the forest.
Court documents say federal agents used hidden cameras for several months in 2015 to monitor Tudor while he allegedly dug for arrowheads and other artifacts in the forest.
The Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 prohibits the excavation of artifacts from federal lands without a permit.