The site made headlines in January 2008 when thousands of artifacts from the Ban Chiang cultural tradition and other prehistoric traditions of Thailand were found to be illegally in several California museums and other locations.[11] The plot involved smuggling the items out of Thailand into the US and then donating them to museums in order to claim large tax write-offs. There were said to be more items in museums than at the site itself. This was brought to light during high profile raids conducted by the police after a National Park Service agent had posed as a private collector. Some of the cases have been resolved and some of the museums have returned artifacts to Thailand