An ax, woven baskets, sandals, ceramic bowls, and a rug made with turkey feathers were among the Native American artifacts allegedly poached from sacred burial sites, according to federal authorities who indicted 24 people on Wednesday in the largest investigation of its kind, spanning over two years.

Announcing the charges at a Salt Lake City news conference, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the stolen items were valued at $335,000. The undercover investigation into excavators and buyers of the artifacts in Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico centered on  an antiquities dealer who wore a hidden microphone to record illicit transactions. The desert of the Four Corners region, where the items were sold, was home to a Native American civilization centuries before Europeans arrived. But archaeologists, Native American groups, and preservationists say the government has not pushed hard enough to prosecute those accused of looting artifacts. Federal authorities estimate that 90% of the 20,000 archaeological sites in San Juan County have been plundered. Most of those indicted live in the county town of Blanding. 

Read more at the Los Angeles Times.