BANGKOK - Thai police have seized hundreds of fossilised dinosaur bones and arrested a man for selling the valuable relics through the popular Internet auction Web site, e-Bay, officials said on Friday.
Police working in conjunction with US customs officials charged 25-year-old Thai businessman Piriya Watchajitpan with hiding and processing
antiques for trade.
US customs first got wind of the trade when they intercepted the dinosaur bones coming from Thailand, but officials said Piriya had also been shipping fossils to Britain, Canada, Hong Kong, China and Japan.
"We have been investigating this one for about eight months," Mark Robinson, a US customs and immigration official in Bangkok, told Reuters.
The on-line auction of the fossils started at as little as $US1000, ($NZ1400) even though scientists say they are priceless.
Piriya bought 30 large dinosaur fossils from a villager in northeast Thailand, where they were first discovered in 1976, for as little as 50,000 baht ($NZ1820) to 100,000 baht.
He faces up to seven years in prison and 700,000 baht fine if found guilty.
- REUTERS
