Two Men Arrested in Orlando On Wildlife Smuggling Charges in Orlando Florida

Rich,

I know this probably does not belong here on the BOI but I wanted everyone to see it and this is the hardest hit site out there. You can follow the link to the original post of the story by the AP. Thanks.

Two Men Arrested in Orlando On Wildlife Smuggling Charges

POSTED: 7:54 a.m. EDT July 1, 2003

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Two men from Southeast Asia have been charged with smuggling endangered wildlife to collectors in the United States, authorities said.

Lawrence Wee Soon Chye, a 37-year-old reptile dealer in Singapore, and Leong Tian Kum, a 33-year-old reptile dealer in Bangkok, were being held without bail in the Seminole County Jail until detention hearings Wednesday.

They were arrested Saturday at Orlando International Airport following a six-month investigation that started when a University of Central Florida student received two falsely labeled packages from Singapore.


Instead of books, the packages shipped overnight to Michael Barrera contained more than 200 rare turtles, tortoises and lizards, according to federal court records in Orlando.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife investigators discovered that Barrera, a business student at UCF, sold 4-inch turtles for up to $400 each over the Internet from his campus-area apartment.

Barrera, who has not been charge, told authorities about illegal shipments between himself and a dealer in Singapore. Barrera shipped king snakes, corn snakes, milk snakes, fat-tail geckos and leopard geckos to the dealer he knew as "Jon Morelia," according to court records.

Authorities in Singapore identified Morelia as an alias for Chye, charged with shipping Indian Star tortoises - protected under international wildlife treaties - and other creatures to collectors in South Florida, California and Washington.

A collector in California received an Emerald Tree monitor, a lizard that grows as long as 34 inches, and a yellow boa constrictor in a shipment labeled "micro-wave safe" plastic container samples. A collector in Washington began cooperating with investigators and told them Chye and Kum were flying from Bangkok to Orlando and arriving Saturday, according to court records.

Chye and Kum were arrested when they landed in Orlando.

Kum, known by the alias "Bobby Lee," was charged with money laundering and illegally importing endangered animals into Wisconsin. Authorities said he shipped Pancake tortoises from East Africa, Hermann's tortoises from the Mediterranean rim countries and Borneo Black Leaf turtles in boxes labeled as native crafts.


http://www.local6.com/news/2304179/detail.html

Gotta love FL. I've lived in Winter Springs, 15 mins north of Orlando, for sometime and have never heard of people getting caught smuggleing herps into the states. What's the punishment if found guilty?

I live a few minutes west of Orlando and haven't heard anything about it myself. I'm sure the fine and penalty will be pretty harsh.

I live in Orlando, and havent heard anything about until right now. I do remember though on Saturday when I was in the area of the airport, there being an unusually large amount of cops, maybe it isnt related to this though??

Josh Zalabak

The fines and penalties can vary but they are very steep. The fines can be $5000-$250,000.00 per incident and 5 years+ in prison. The stings such as this one need to continue as the illegal importation and trade in any wildlife needs to be stopped. I am a firm believer in stopping these type of people and protecting the animals.
The reason you guys had not heard about it until now is it was just released to the News this morning. These stings are undercover and very secretive to ensure they are able to catch the criminals without them being tipped off.

While i do agree that those guys had to be stopped,

what about the student? he needs to get what scoming to him also...

LIKE I Jesse James says " don't shoot drugs, shoot informants"

forgot my name



AL Nunez

"Jon Morelia" about time! Let's leave it at that.......Ray Goushaw HBR