A San Gabriel man who attempted to smuggle nearly four dozen turtles from Southern California to Hong Kong will begin serving a two-month federal prison term in February.
After he gets out of custody, Kwong Wa Cheung, 36, will be on supervised release for two years, during which time he will serve two months in a residential halfway house and perform 500 hours of community service at an animal shelter, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
U.S. District Judge John F. Walter on Tuesday also ordered the defendant to pay a $12,000 fine.
When Cheung attempted to smuggle the 46 turtles and tortoises to Hong Kong, he brought three boxes containing the reptiles to a U.S. Postal Service facility in San Gabriel.
Cheung used a fake name and address on the packages, which he labeled as containing “Toys (Acces Model).” The name that Cheung used aroused suspicion, and the Postal Service refused to ship the packages.
Because he used a bogus name, the Postal Service could not locate Cheung and began processing the undelivered packages for shipment to a “dead mail” facility in Georgia.
Aafter several days, at least one of the packages began to emit a strong odor because one of the now-dead turtles was already decomposing. When a Postal Inspector opened one of the packages, he found the reptiles packaged in athletic socks. Subsequent investigation linked Cheung to the mislabeled packages.
The 26 Eastern Box turtles and 20 African Spurred tortoises are species protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
Cheung pleaded guilty in August to one count one of mislabeling wildlife intended for foreign commerce.
— City News Service