Opinion ID: 3051380
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Importation of Protected Reptiles

Text: In 1994, the Fish and Wildlife Service constructed a fauxwildlife importation and wholesale business called “PacRim” as part of an elaborate sting aimed at trapping prominent Malaysian commercial wildlife dealer, Keng Liang “Anson” Wong. Spearheading the investigation for the government was Special Agent George Morrison, operating under the alias “George Ross.” To establish a rapport with Wong, Morrison, through the PacRim shell, purchased several legal shipments of reptiles for importation to the United States. The government, however, had no need for the accumulating reptiles purchased from Wong and sought a purchaser for the animals. To locate a buyer, PacRim took out an advertisement in the appropriately named Reptiles magazine. Beau Lee Lewis, an eighteen year old aspiring herpetologist, read the announcement and contacted Morrison in late 1995 to obtain a price list for the reptiles for sale. Over the next three years, Morrison and Lewis spoke frequently both over the phone and during Morrison’s visits to the home of Lewis’s parents. Their relationship at first centered around the legal purchase and sale of reptiles. This shifted, however, after Lewis questioned Morrison about acquiring federally-protected gray’s monitor lizards. Gray’s monitors, as well as the other reptiles involved here, are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (“CITES”), 27 U.S.T. 2420 UNITED STATES v. LEWIS 1087, T.I.A.S. No. 8249, as well as the Endangered Species Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 1531-1544 and the Lacey Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 3771-3378. Nearly three months later, Lewis let Morrison know he had been in contact with Wong and was importing reptiles through Malaysia. What began as the government’s effort to unload legal reptiles onto Lewis thus mutated into a conspiracy to violate federal wildlife and importation law involving Lewis, Morrison and Wong. Lewis and Morrison set about devising plans whereby Wong could directly send the protected reptiles to Lewis. After consulting with other local reptile traders, who eventually were named co-conspirators in the scheme, the pair concluded that transport through Federal Express (“FedEx”) provided the most efficient route. From December of 1997 through August of 1998, Wong shipped six FedEx packages to Lewis containing scores of protected wildlife. The sting concluded in September of 1998 when Morrison convinced a reluctant Wong to travel to Mexico City for a meeting. Mexican officials arrested Wong upon his arrival and incarcerated him pending extradition to the United States. Lewis was indicted on July 8, 1998, and arraigned on October 1, 1998.