" LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A Californian man faces jail after being convicted of smuggling stolen rare iguanas into the United States inside his prosthetic leg, justice officials said Friday.
ADVERTISEMENT
Jereme James, 34, was convicted on two counts of smuggling and possessing endangered animals and is due to be sentenced on July 14, a statement from the US Attorney's Office in Los Angeles said.
Prosecutors said James stole three baby Fiji Island banded iguanas from an ecological preserve while on a trip to the South Pacific islands in 2002 and smuggled them by concealing them in the compartment of a prosthetic leg.
The iguanas are threatened with extinction because of habitat loss and are considered an endangered species."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080411...iguanasoffbeat
"LOS ANGELES — A jury acquitted a man of smuggling endangered iguanas in his hollowed-out prosthetic leg but convicted him of concealing and possessing the endangered species.
The jury rejected charges Thursday that Jereme James stole Fiji Island banded iguanas while visiting the South Pacific in September 2002. The neon-green-striped iguana is an endangered species, prosecutors said.
However, James faces a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison when sentenced July 14.
An e-mail message to James' lawyer Friday was not immediately returned.
During an undercover probe, James told investigators he had sold three iguanas for $32,000, prosecutors said. Four iguanas were seized when a search warrant was served at his house in April."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,350848,00.html