Virginia Man Pleads Guilty to Trafficking Turtles
A man in Virginia who illegally caught and sold turtles across the United States has pleaded guilty to conducting a trafficking scheme that made him thousands of dollars and sent many of the animals to Asia, where they are in high demand as pets, the Justice Department said Monday.
The man, Stanlee Fazi, 41, of Louisa, Va., 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 them to buyers in the United States.
Many of the animals were then sold to people in Hong Kong and China, where the illegal pet turtle trade is booming, prosecutors said. Turtle populations there are in decline because of their use in the pet trade, in Asian folk medicines and as food.
Mr. Fazi admitted that he had bound the turtles in socks and shipped them via FedEx from Fredericksburg, Va., making about $12,700 in the scheme, the Justice Department said in a news release. He will be sentenced in July and faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Source: The New York Times
