Anaheim Couple Pleads Guilty and Is Sentenced for Trafficking Rhino Horn, a Tiger Pelt and Bear Gallbladders
EUGENE, Oregon — Linh Luu and Kevin Le, a husband and wife from Anaheim, California, pleaded guilty on October 23 in federal court in Eugene to violating the Lacey Act, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. The court sentenced each of them to three years of probation and a $10,000 fine for their roles in trafficking protected wildlife between Oregon and Vietnam.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Luu and Le admitted that from September 2019 through May 2021, they processed $51,100 in payments to aid an individual in Vietnam in illegally moving wildlife items to and from Oregon. The wildlife parts shipped to Vietnam included American black bear gallbladders and cougar bones; those imported into Oregon included lion teeth, segments from black rhinoceros and white rhinoceros horns, and a tiger pelt.
According to a sentencing submission filed by the government, Luu and Le met an undercover federal agent in a parking lot in December 2020. They accepted $12,000 in cash as a down payment for part of a rhino horn and discussed ways to avoid U.S. banking regulations that could detect illicit transactions. They later each received nearly $5,000 in electronic payments for the horn segment, which was then shipped to Oregon disguised as a household decoration. The sale was discussed as a way to build trust for future, larger deals.
All of the wildlife species whose parts were trafficked in this case are listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a treaty signed by the United States, Vietnam and 183 other governments; trade in listed species is prohibited without a permit, which the defendants did not obtain. Black bears and cougars are native to Oregon. Lions, tigers, and black and white rhinoceroses are also protected under the Endangered Species Act. The Lacey Act is the country's oldest wildlife trafficking statute and prohibits, among other things, buying or selling wildlife that was illegally imported or exported.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD), U.S. Attorney Scott E. Bradford for the District of Oregon, and Assistant Director Douglas Ault of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) made the announcement. The USFWS Office of Law Enforcement investigated the case, with assistance from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Oregon State Police. Senior Trial Attorney Ryan Connors of ENRD's Environmental Crimes Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney William McLaren for the District of Oregon prosecuted the case, No. 26-cr-00297, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：坦桑尼亚 Ngorongoro 保护区的一头黑犀牛（资料图）；本案被贩运的制品包括黑犀牛与白犀牛的犀牛角切片。Photo: A black rhinoceros in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania (file photo). Yoky via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
