North Florida Arrowhead Sting

A thought-provoking article from the Tampa Bay Times about the background to a recent antiquities bust in Florida:

In all, FWC agents raided six homes, arrested 14 people from Big Pine Key to south Georgia, and charged them with more than 400 felonies. The raids capped a two-year undercover investigation that cost the state more than $130,000, not including the cost of the tactical raids or subsequent prosecution. The sting, called Operation Timucua, netted people with clean criminal records, including a brick mason, a 24-year military veteran and a 74-year-old retired University of South Florida professor. It drove suspects into debt and wrecked their reputations. One man got divorced. One committed suicide. The mission: to stop the buying and selling of artifacts.

I am not sure, despite the title, that it explains the 'point' very well, but an interesting read. Mentions Florida's Isolated Finds Programme.

Meanwhile you can find a typical artefact-hunter discussion of the story on the forum "arrowheadology" (I think the name pretty descriptive of their coiney-like approach), including this comment from member "BC Knowledge" from "Southeast US":

Better mousetrap = smarter Mice GAME ON!!!

[I'd be interested to hear the commentary on this story and the way artefact hunters in her own country reacted from Lisa McIntyre (the Florida archaeologist who befriends artefact hunters and is an implacable enemy of Heritage Action and its efforts).]

Ben Montgomery, 'North Florida arrowhead sting: What's the point?', Tampa bay Times, Thursday, January 2, 2014

UPDATE  23.01.14
Ms McIntyre registers her displeasure with the Florida artefact hunters mentioned in this article here on Dick Stout's blog.

These people clearly broke laws, and remember, this was all done on public land, not private! [...] I may not agree with a lot of the laws against metal detecting, however I stand behind observing those laws. There are a lot of things I think should be legal but breaking the law because I think a law is wrong does not get me a free pass.  I sign petitions and write letters to my officials to get these laws changed.  I break the law; I take the risk of being jailed. These people broke the law. 

That of course is a cop-out answer. Nobody is denying that laws should be respected. The question is a wider one about the preservation versus the exploitation of the archaeological record, one she dodges yet again, while being only too happy to attack those who attempt to discuss it.