Operation Jungle Book, a law enforcement initiative led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that targeted wildlife smuggling, has resulted in federal criminal charges against defendants who allegedly participated in the illegal importation and/or transportation of numerous animal species — including a tiger, monitor lizards, cobras, Asian “lucky” fish, exotic songbirds and several coral species, officials have announced.
“We are combating an ever-growing black market for exotic animals. An insatiable desire to own examples — both living and dead — of these vulnerable creatures is fueling this black market,” acting U.S. Attorney Sandra R. Brown said.
“This is a truly international problem that threatens the survival of iconic species and vulnerable animal populations,” she said. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office is prosecuting a wide array of cases that highlight the pervasive problem of wildlife trafficking and the associated issues of invasive species, disease transmission and the extinction of certain species.”
Over the past several months, prosecutors from the Environmental and Community Safety Crimes Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office have filed and litigated a series of cases that demonstrate the scope of the underground market for protected wildlife. The cases further illustrate the various means used by traffickers to avoid detection in the harvesting and illegal smuggling of various species.
The black market for protected wildlife increases the demand for wildlife and their parts, which threatens to decimate vulnerable species, officials said.
“Wildlife trafficking does not stop at international borders, and it is our duty to protect imperiled species both at home and abroad,” said Ed Grace, USFWS acting chief of law enforcement. “I commend our special agents who worked collaboratively with our state and federal partners to investigate, arrest and prosecute these criminals. I would also like to thank the zoos, sanctuaries, and educational centers that shelter, care for and rehabilitate the live animals we seize.”
“Together, we are saving imperiled animals while bringing to justice those who attempt to profit from the illegal wildlife trade.” he said.
Some of the animals that have been recovered are currently being cared for by the Los Angeles Zoo, the San Diego Zoo, the Turtle Conservancy, and the STAR Eco Station — organizations that were represented at a media event Friday at a USFWS facility in Torrance.
Operation Jungle Book defendants include:
— Nicholas “Nick the Wrangler” Bishop, 27, who was charged with aiding and abetting the purchase of a prohibited wildlife species after allegedly falsifying documents used to purchase the Bengal tiger in March 2014 from an Indiana organization called Wildlife In Need, Wildlife Indeed. In a statement given to investigators, Bishop, who now lives in Florida, said that he had purchased the tiger for Michael Ray Stevenson, a Compton rapper who uses the stage name Tyga;
— Rodrigo Franco, 34, a Monterey Park man who pleaded guilty to smuggling king cobras — reptiles that were illegally brought into the United States after being hidden in potato chip cans shipped from Hong Kong — along with Chinese albino soft-shelled turtles;
— Gayle Simpson, 33, an Inglewood man who pleaded guilty to smuggling monitor lizards that were shipped from the Philippines. Simpson is scheduled to be sentenced in Los Angeles federal court on Nov. 20, at which time he will face up to 20 years in prison;
— Bryan Cho, 41, a Long Beach man charged with smuggling two species of monitor lizards that had been shipped from the Philippines;
— Kevin Duc Vu, 45, a Westminster man who sold turtles and arowana fish — said to be the world’s most expensive aquarium fish — over the internet. He pleaded guilty to smuggling the protected fish, which are considered symbols of luck and prosperity in parts of Asia;
— Shawn Naolu Lee, 29, of Garden Grove, and Mickey Tanadi, 21, of Jakarta, Indonesia, who are both with conspiring to smuggle arowana fish into the United States;
— Kurtis Law, 50, of Fountain Valley, who was sentenced this week to serve a year in federal prison, and another six months in home detention, after pleading guilty to smuggling protected Asian songbirds into the United States. Law was arrested in May after bringing 93 Asian songbirds, worth nearly $100,000, on a flight from Vietnam. All but eight of the birds died in transit or soon after arriving at Los Angeles International Airport;
— Sonny Dong, 55, a Westminster man pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle Asian songbirds — specifically, Chinese hwamei — into the United States and admitted hiring another man to illegally import the birds from Vietnam;
— Tyler Rene Vela, 27, a Santa Ana man who faces trial Dec. 12 on misdemeanor charges of illegally selling feathers on Facebook from protected migratory birds and bald eagles;
— Jose Torres, 42, a Gardena man who is charged with unlawfully attempting to export to Mexico some 20 varieties of live corals protected by the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora — known as CITES; and
— Jorge Vazquez, 39, a Garden Grove man charged with unlawfully attempting to export live, CITES-protected corals allegedly hidden in Pringles potato chip cans and discovered during a baggage inspection at Los Angeles International Airport.
–City News Service