Jeanne Redd tried to peddle a shell necklace from tribal land made famous in a Tony Hillerman novel. Aubry Patterson would go pot hunting and instead came across American Indian skeletons. And Tad Kreth assured his worried grandmother that he never would end up in jail over his artifact dealing.

So alleges a batch of new search-warrant affidavits released Tuesday in federal cases against these three southern Utahns and others indicted last week in what officials are calling the biggest-ever crackdown against illegal traffickers of pre-Columbian tribal artifacts.

The court papers outline how an undercover operative -- identified only as the "Source" -- moved easily through the homes and storage lockers where the defendants

kept vast inventories of artifacts that may have been stolen from public and tribal lands.

The affidavit in the felony case against Blanding resident Jeanne Redd -- wife of doctor James Redd -- includes grainy copies of undercover photos taken during the nearly 2½-year investigation. One shows tribal artifacts piled on one another in display cases and shelves. Another depicts her kneeling on the floor showing a ceramic mug to an unidentified man whose face is hidden.

Officials say the Source spent nearly $336,000 on deals he and agents with the FBI and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management recorded with audiovisual devices.

Court papers say Kreth's grandmother fretted that the 30-year-old Blanding resident would

land behind bars if he kept selling artifacts such as sandals and ivory beads.

"Kreth said he told her that he had dealt with the Source for a while now and everything had been good," the affidavit says, "and she doesn't need to worry about him going to jail."

Alongside an undercover FBI agent working in the Blanding home of Joseph and Meredith Smith, 31 and 34, respectively, the Source allegedly heard out Joseph Smith's claims that he had found a copper bracelet at the bottom of an Anasazi mound.

Another affidavit says the Source listened -- along with federal law enforcement agents who were monitoring the conversation via a hidden audio-visual transmitter -- to 55-year-old Aubry Patterson, of Blanding, explain how he didn't mean to dig up ancient skeletons when he went looking for pots in graves.

Patterson told the Source he is dyslexic and never learned to write, the court papers say, so the informant helped him with a letter asserting that a bowl he sold was from private land. Patterson also said that he often digs fresh holes on his property in case someone asks where he found his artifacts.

The Redds, Kreth, the Smiths and Patterson were among two dozen Utah, Colorado and New Mexico residents rounded up in a federal raid and indicted six days ago for theft and sale of more than 250 artifacts from the Four Corners area.

James Redd, 60, took his own life Thursday, the day after he and the other defendants made their first appearance before U.S. Magistrate Samuel Alba. His funeral was Tuesday, the same day the court unsealed the 10 remaining affidavits pertaining to the Utah defendants in the probe.

The Redd affidavit says some of the mugs and necklaces and four sandals Jeanne Redd showed or sold came from Indian lands, including the Floating House Ruin in Chinle Wash --- which mystery writer Tony Hillerman called Many Ruins Canyon in his novel Thief of Time .

During multiple visits the Source made to the Redd home in 2007, sometimes when James Redd was present, Jeanne Redd traded some artifacts for buttons, purportedly from Dark Canyon, which the informant offered in exchange. She tried to sell for $4,000 a gourd containing a 13-inch shell necklace on its original string. Redd, the affidavit says, told the Source the necklace also came from the Floating House Ruin.

The affidavit says Redd used a personal computer in the home to exchange e-mails with the Source. The Redd affidavit -- and all the others -- also included a request to seize any computers in the homes, though it was unclear whether agents did so.

Brandon Loomis and Pamela Manson contributed to this story.