Global Courant
A Pomona man faces up to 21 years in prison after he tried to sneak frozen roasted eels into the country that were denied because they were contaminated with unsafe veterinary drugs.
Kevin Sheng Hsiang Fang, 41, and his wholesaler Yong Chang Trading Co. in the City of Industry on May 31 pleaded guilty to smuggling and introducing the adulterated frozen roasted eel into interstate commerce.
Fang will receive a maximum sentence of 21 years in prison when he is scheduled for sentencing on August 14.
In February 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration tested one of Fang’s shipments, consisting of 2,100 boxes of frozen roasted eel, and found it unsafe for human consumption.
Fang tried to reimport those rejected eels later that year by mixing them with a new shipment of eels and using different identification numbers needed when bringing goods to the U.S., Assistant U.S. Atty said. Amanda M. Bettinelli, who is prosecuting the case.
“This individual showed complete disregard for the health and safety of the American consumer by knowingly marketing tainted products,” Eddy Wang, acting special agent with Homeland Security Investigations Los Angeles, said in a press release.
One shipment contained roasted eel contaminated with antifungal and antiparasitic agents not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use on seafood. According to the FDA, long-term exposure to those substances can be carcinogenic.
Bettinelli said FDA and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents acknowledged that Fang was trying again to import the rejected eel when they noticed holes in the eel from where samples had previously been taken.
