Alaska News

Alaska guide fined for smuggled mammoth tusk

A river guide has been fined $30,000 for helping a client smuggle a 10,000-year-old mammoth fossil out of Alaska.

The U.S. Attorney's office says Karen Jettmar was sentenced in Anchorage's federal court Sept. 13 but didn't announce it until Friday.

Jettmar, author of "The Alaska River Guide," also must add a warning to her business website, Equinox Wilderness Expedition, saying it is illegal to gather fossils or archaeological objects on federal lands. She also will serve probation and return another bone.

A federal investigation determined a mammoth tusk estimated to be worth $4,000 was removed from public lands in Northwest Alaska in 2007.

Client Robert Franz in May pleaded guilty in Philadelphia's federal court to conspiracy to defraud the United States and theft of government property. He was fined $100,000.

Associated Press

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