Items Pilfered At The Same Time CWO Was Based In Cairo

Officials say US Army Chief Warrant Officer Edward George Johnson didn't stay in Egypt very long... but he made the time worth his while. And that's the problem -- Johnson is charged with selling 90 artifacts, stolen from a museum while the Fort Bragg helicopter pilot was stationed in Cairo.

The New York Times reports Johnson, 44, was deployed in Cairo from February to October 2002, flying Army attack and scout helicopters. The items he is accused of selling -- mostly pottery, with many items dating to 3000 B.C. or earlier -- were among 370 items stolen from Cairo's Ma'adi Museum in September of that year.

The complaint does not say whether Johnson is believed to have committed the theft... but somehow, officials maintain, he wound up with the ill-gotten goods, which were unearthed from an archaeological site in the 1920s and 1930s.

Authorities say Johnson contacted an art dealer in Texas in January 2003, with an offer to sell a collection of Egyptian antiques. He allegedly told the dealer his grandfather had acquired the artifacts while working for a mineral company in Egypt in the 1930s and 1940s.

The dealer agreed to purchase them, and sent Johnson four checks totaling about $20,000 for the artifacts. The dealer then resold them on consignment to galleries in New York, London, Zurich and Montreal.

Johnson was arrested Tuesday in Enterprise, AL, on charges of transportation of stolen property, and wire fraud. He faces up to 15 years in prison, reports the Fayetteville Observer. The pilot, part of the Security Assistance Training Management Organization at Fort Bragg, NC, was reportedly on temporary duty at nearby Fort Rucker at the time of his arrest.

If convicted, Johnson faces up to 15 years in federal prison. He was released on $25,000 bail Wednesday, and ordered to surrender his diplomatic and civilian passports pending a court appearance no later than February 20. He may not take any new military assignments without court approval.

FMI: www.touregypt.net/geo/, www.bragg.army.mil/satmo/