*EPF406 12/14/00
Text: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Combats Illegal Wildlife Trade
(Smuggler pleads guilty to trafficking endangered species) (1770)

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service successfully prosecuted a well-known international wildlife dealer and suspected smuggler on charges of trafficking some of the most rare and endangered reptiles in the world, the service announced December 13.

The prosecution, it added, is part of an on-going effort to combat the illegal wildlife trade.

"Reptile trafficking is a high-profit criminal enterprise, and the United States is one of its largest markets," Service Director Jamie Rappaport Clark said.

The investigation exposed Keng Liang "Anson" Wong as the leader of "an international wildlife smuggling ring" that illegally imported exotic reptiles by concealing them in express delivery packages, airline baggage, and large commercial shipments of legally declared animals, the release said.

The California-based Wong will be sentenced in March 2001. The maximum penalty for money laundering is 20 years imprisonment and a $500,000 fine; the remaining charges each carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The reptiles brought into the United State by Wong, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said, included such rare species as Komodo dragons and plowshare tortoises, which can earn high prices on the black market because they are on the brink of extinction and are only native to limited, geographically isolated habitats.

"Plundering the world's rare reptiles takes a toll that cannot be measured in dollars. Such trafficking robs countries of their natural heritage, disrupts ecosystems, and shortchanges future generations," Clark said.

Lois J. Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General for Environment and Natural Resources, said bringing Wong to justice demonstrates the commitment of the United States and the international community to put an end to profiteering in endangered species.

"Let the message be clear: We will take whatever steps we can here and abroad to shutdown the black market in reptiles and other protected animals," she said.

Following is the text of the news release:

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U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service News Release
December 13, 2000

REPTILE SMUGGLER PLEADS GUILTY TO MULTIPLE FELONY CHARGES

Keng Liang "Anson" Wong, a well-known international wildlife dealer who spent nearly two years in a Mexican prison fighting extradition to the United States, pleaded guilty today in federal court in San Francisco to 40 felony charges stemming from 1992 and 1998 federal indictments for trafficking in some of the most rare and endangered reptile species on earth. The charges include money laundering, conspiracy, smuggling, and violations of the Lacey Act, a U.S. wildlife protection law that prohibits trade in animals protected under federal, state, or international law and the making of false statements concerning wildlife shipments. The maximum penalty for money laundering is 20 years imprisonment and a $500,000 fine; the remaining charges each carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Wong is scheduled to be sentenced in March, 2001.

Some of Wong's black market dealings, which involved the unlawful importation and sale of more than 300 protected reptiles native to Asia and Africa between 1996 and 1998, were documented by an undercover U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigation that successfully infiltrated the illegal reptile trade. That investigation revealed that Wong spearheaded an international wildlife smuggling ring that illegally imported exotic reptiles by concealing them in express delivery packages, airline baggage, and large commercial shipments of legally declared animals. A number of the species involved, such as Komodo dragons and plowshare tortoises, already on the brink of extinction, occur only in very limited, geographically isolated habitats.

At the time of these transactions, Wong was wanted in the United States under a 1992 indictment charging him with conspiring to smuggle endangered Fiji banded iguanas, Bengal monitor lizards, and Indian soft-shelled turtles into this country for sale to a reptile dealer in Florida.

"Reptile trafficking is a high-profit criminal enterprise, and the United States is one of its largest markets," said Service Director Jamie Rappaport Clark. "Plundering the world's rare reptiles takes a toll that cannot be measured in dollars. Such trafficking robs countries of their natural heritage, disrupts ecosystems, and shortchanges future generations."

In July 1998, a federal grand jury in San Francisco returned a sealed indictment against Wong and three of his associates, based on evidence showing that the Malaysian businessman, who owned and operated Sungai Rusa Wildlife in Penang, had sent 14 illegal shipments to the United States containing protected reptiles worth nearly a half million dollars on the black market.

Two months later, in September 1998, Wong traveled to Mexico City for a pre-arranged meeting with an undercover Service special agent posing as an American reptile dealer. Acting at the request of the U.S. Government, the Government of Mexico arrested Wong and held him pending extradition on the U.S. charges. Imprisoned in Mexico, Wong fought extradition to the United States until June 2000, when he filed papers in the Mexican courts abandoning his efforts to avoid prosecution in this country. On August 29, the Government of Mexico transferred Wong to the custody of U.S. Marshals and he was flown to San Francisco to face trial.

"Bringing Anson Wong to justice demonstrates the Nation's resolve to combat profiteering in endangered species as well as our continuing partnership with Mexico to uphold global wildlife protections," said Lois J. Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General for Environment and Natural Resources. "Let the message be clear: We will take whatever steps we can here and abroad to shutdown the black market in reptiles and other protected animals."

Long an active player in the global wildlife trade and suspected smuggler, Wong had been careful to stay out of the United States since 1992 when a warrant was issued for his arrest following his indictment in Florida for reptile trafficking. In 1996, however, he began dealing by phone and fax with a U.S. reptile import "business" in the San Francisco area B a business specifically set up by the Service to intercept illegal trade. Wong negotiated deals that delivered an array of highly prized exotic reptiles to the United
States.

Trade of the animals smuggled and sold by Wong in both the California and Florida cases is regulated under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a global agreement that controls the importation and exportation of hundreds of imperiled animals and plants. Commercial traffic in many of these reptiles is prohibited; others require permits to legally enter trade. A number are also protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, which outlaws their importation into the United States for commercial purposes.

Endangered species traded by Wong included two particularly rare reptiles from island nations. The Komodo dragon, the world's largest lizard, is native only to a relatively small area of Indonesia. The plowshare or Madagascan spurred tortoise, believed by many to be the rarest tortoise species, occurs only on the island of Madagascar, off the southeastern coast of Africa.

These species bring particularly high prices on the black market. Both the Komodo dragon and the plowshare tortoise can each fetch up to about $30,000 in the illegal trade.

Wong also trafficked in such rarities as the Chinese alligator (which inhabits the lower course of the Yangtze River); the false gavial (a crocodile whose range is restricted to parts of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and southern Thailand along the Perak River); and the radiated tortoise, another species found only on Madagascar. Black market prices for these endangered reptiles range from $5,000 to $15,000.

Other species smuggled by Wong included Grey's monitor lizards, spider tortoises, Burmese star tortoises, Indian star tortoises, Boelen's pythons, Timor pythons, green tree pythons, and Fly River turtles.

Wong's co-defendants in the California case include James Michael Burroughs, of San Francisco, who pleaded guilty to several charges and awaits sentencing, and three individuals from the Phoenix, Arizona area B Beau Lee Lewis, Jeffery Miller, and Robert Paluch B who are scheduled to go to trial in January. The sixth individual indicted with Wong and his U.S. associates, Yuk Wah "Oscar" Shiu, a Hong Kong resident who runs a wildlife import/export business in that city, is still wanted. Three other U.S. citizens have also been charged in connection with this smuggling ring.

The undercover federal probe of Wong and his business associates was conducted by special agents from the Service's Branch of Special Operations, an enforcement unit specializing in covert investigations of illegal wildlife trade, with assistance from the U.S. Customs Service, the Mexican Attorney General's Office, INTERPOL, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Canada. The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California and the Wildlife and Marine Resources Section of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division.

The California-based Wong case was one of several completed as part of Operation Chameleon, a comprehensive multi-year Service investigation of the illegal reptile trade conducted in partnership with the Justice Department's Wildlife and Marine Resources Section and U.S. Attorney's offices in several states. This long-term, concentrated effort to combat reptile trafficking also broke up a major smuggling ring that was funneling Madagascan snakes and tortoises to Germany and then on to markets in the United States and Canada; secured a guilty plea to charges of fraud and theft from the reptile curator of a well-known California zoo; and produced charges against more than 40 people in the United States, Canada, and Germany.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 93-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System which encompasses more than 530 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 66 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 78 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces Federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.

Note to media: B-roll film and/or color slides of reptiles smuggled in this case, including juvenile Komodo dragons and plowshare tortoises, are available by contacting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Public Affairs Office at (202) 208-5634.

Contacts Pat Fisher 202-208-5634
Sandra Cleva 703-358-1949

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(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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