Global Courant 2023-04-26 15:03:39
A man in Virginia who illegally caught and sold turtles in the United States has pleaded guilty to running a smuggling scheme that earned him thousands of dollars and sent many of the animals to Asia, where they are in demand as pets, according to the Ministry of Justice. Monday.
The man, Stanlee Fazi, 41, of Louisa, Virginia, pleaded guilty in federal court to trafficking turtles from July 2017 to June 2020. During that time, he collected eastern box turtles — which have bright yellow or orange markings on their cocoa — colored shells – and shipped to buyers in the United States.
Many of the animals were then sold to people in Hong Kong and China, where the illegal turtle trade is booming, prosecutors said. Turtle populations there are declining because of their use in the pet trade, in Asian folk medicines, and as food.
Mr. Fazi admitted to binding the turtles in socks and shipping them via FedEx from Fredericksburg, Va. press release. He will be sentenced in July and faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Mr. Fazi’s attorney, Edward J. Ungvarsky, said in a statement that his client “loves turtles and has publicly sold a small number of turtles he found over several years to fellow enthusiasts here in the United States.” States.”
“It was never his intention that any of them be sent to Asia,” Mr Ungvarsky added.
Virginia law prohibits the capture and sale of turtle species from the wild; it is a federal crime to violate state natural laws.
Mr Fazi’s case is the latest to attract the attention of federal authorities investigating a growing illegal, international pet trade exacerbated by the pandemic after people spent more time at home seeking exotic pets, particularly species that are easy to keep and to smuggle.
Eastern box turtlesslow, sturdy creatures native to the eastern United States that grow up to six inches in length and live to be a century old are especially in demand in Asia.
Indeed, there are many species of turtles in Asia threatenedand climate change and habitat destruction have made their future even more dire, according to to the University of Hawaii. Conservationists have described the phenomenon as the “Asian turtle crisis.”
But the shipments of Eastern box turtles to Asia have contributed to the decline in the United States. The eastern box turtles are also an invasive species in Asia and can spread disease there.
A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service study found it that between June 2017 and December 2018, at least 1,500 native turtles – including forest turtles, spotted turtles and Eastern box turtles – were illegally smuggled to Asia.
The illegal pet trade in the United States has led some to believe the underground market is an easy way to make money, said World Wildlife Fund’s Crawford Allan, an expert on international wildlife trade. . The premise, he said, seems simple: You find turtles outside, collect them and sell them online.
“What we’ve found is that it’s so easy to post stuff on social media without detection,” Mr Allan said in an interview.
Mr Fazi, according to prosecutors, used that social media strategy in his scheme.
Court records show that on July 26, 2017, he posted on Facebook Marketplace’s “Virginia Reptile Classifieds” that he was “looking for all box turtles. Message me and let me know what you got.
Such open questions are typical of the illegal turtle trade, Mr Allan said, because people can “easily avoid detection”. Sometimes they change keywords with emojis or with code words when trying to communicate in a sale, he said.
Facebook, what prohibits such transactions on its site, is one of the main platforms being abused in the exotic pet trade, Mr Allan said.
“It’s so hard to tell the difference between someone just showing a wildlife video” or someone trying to sell an exotic animal by being clever in their posts, Mr Allan said. However, he noted that detection is improving due to more sophisticated algorithms.
Some of the most financially lucrative sales of Mr. Fazi involved “shouter” Eastern box turtles, which are highly sought after for their vibrant color. They can have red and yellow stripes on shells dazzled with dots and bright red eyes.
Mr. Fazi, according to prosecutors, offered to sell a pair of screamers for $400.
In a message to a client that appeared in the court records, Mr. Fazi boasted that he owned many screamers.
“I will always supply you with oriental men,” Mr. Fazi wrote. “There’s no need to go anywhere else.”
