NEW YORK (AP) - A U.S. Army helicopter pilot has been arrested on charges of selling stolen Egyptian antiquities dating to 3000 B.C., federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Edward Johnson, 44, a chief warrant officer, was arrested Tuesday in Alabama on charges of transportation of stolen property and wire fraud, U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said.

Johnson was deployed in Cairo in September 2002 when approximately 370 pre-dynastic artifacts were stolen from the Ma'adi Museum near Cairo, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Johnson, whose duties include piloting and commanding attack and scout helicopters, contacted an art dealer in January 2003 and offered to sell a collection of Egyptian antiquities dating to 3000 B.C. or earlier, prosecutors said.

The art dealer bought about 80 pieces for $20,000 after Johnson said his grandfather acquired the antiquities when he worked in Egypt in the 1930s and 1940s, prosecutors said.

Some of the items were later consigned to galleries in Manhattan, London, Zurich and Montreal, among other places.

The government said experts had determined that the majority of the items he sold had been stolen from the museum. The items were originally excavated from an archaeological site in Egypt in the 1920s and 1930s.

If convicted, Johnson could face up to 15 years in prison.