Louisiana Man Indicted on Federal Charges Involving Illegal Turtle Sales

Com reported. Albert Bazaar, formerly of Angie, Louisiana, was arrested after an indictment in San Francisco charged him with conspiracy and multiple violations of the Lacey Act. The indictment alleges he poached and sold 100 stripe-neck musk turtles and 15 striped mud turtles from their native habitats in Florida between January 2022 and December 2023.

Florida law protects freshwater and marine turtle species from unregulated harvest. The turtles were estimated to be worth more than $550,000 in the Asian pet trade, prosecutors said. The indictment alleges Bazaar worked with a co-conspirator based in San Francisco who exported the turtles to Taiwan while falsely claiming they were captive-bred in order to obtain export permits.

Prosecutors described eight separate transactions in which Bazaar sold illegally collected turtles to the exporter. The exporter financed Bazaar’s poaching trips from Louisiana to Florida, including providing money to purchase a boat and van, according to court documents.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that falsely stated the turtles were lawfully bred in Alabama and Georgia, prosecutors said. Loggerhead musk turtles, stripe-neck musk turtles and striped mud turtles are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, known as CITES.

CITES is a treaty signed by the United States and 184 other governments restricting international wildlife sales without a permit.

The case was developed as part of Operation Southern Hot Herps, a joint federal and state effort to combat turtle poaching across the southeastern United States. Agencies involved included the Fish and Wildlife Service, Homeland Security Investigations, and wildlife enforcement agencies in Florida, California and Alabama.

U.S. Attorney Kenneth Chambers are prosecuting the case. A status conference is scheduled for May 14 in Phoenix, prosecutors said. If convicted, Bazaar faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each of the conspiracy and Lacey Act charges, prosecutors said.

The indictment contains allegations, and Bazaar is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.