Not to steal Kathi's thunder...

BTW Kathi, thanks for all of the news reports. You are a great source of information.

South Dakota Man Found Guilty For Smuggling A Leopard Hide Into U.S.
Fri Oct 30, 2009 6:29pm EDT
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WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A federal jury in Aberdeen,
S.D., has found a South Dakota man guilty for smuggling the hide of a leopard
into the United States in violation of the Convention on International Trade
in Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), an international treaty that regulates
international shipments of listed species, to which the United States and 172
other countries are members. The leopard allegedly was hunted and killed in
South Africa illegally. Wayne D. Breitag of Aberdeen, S.D., was also found
guilty for violations of the Lacey Act, a federal wildlife statute.

Leopards (Panthera pardus) are listed on Appendix I of CITES. CITES requires
that prior to the transport of any part of an Appendix I species from one
country to another, an export permit from the country of origin (or a
re-export certificate), and an import permit from the country to which the
specimen will be shipped, must be obtained and accompany the shipment. The
CITES authorities in South Africa set a yearly quota on the number of export
permits issued by that country for Appendix I species, such as leopards. These
permits are only issued for leopards which have been killed with a valid
hunting permit.

According to the August grand jury indictment, Breitag traveled to South
Africa in August 2002 to hunt leopards while guided by a South African
outfitter named Jan Groenewald Swart doing business as "Trophy Hunting
Safaris." Breitag shot and killed a leopard at that time.

Swart arranged to have the hides smuggled from South Africa into Zimbabwe,
where he purchased fraudulent CITES export permits for the leopard hide.
Breitag then submitted applications to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
(USFWS) falsely claiming that he hunted and killed the leopard in Zimbabwe. On
Nov. 5, 2004, USFWS inspectors seized a shipment of five leopard hides and
three leopard skulls at the Denver International Airport, which included the
hide of the leopard that Breitag killed illegally in South Africa in 2002.

Smuggling is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine,
while the Lacey Act violations are punishable by up to 5 years in prison and
up to a $250,000 fine.

On May 21, 2007, Jan Groenewald Swart pleaded guilty to smuggling charges in
the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado for his role in the
illegal hunts. Swart served an eighteen-month prison sentence, has since been
released and deported.

The investigation of this case was lead by Special Agents of the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service. The case is being prosecuted by the Environmental Crimes
Section of the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorneys' Offices for
the District of South Dakota and Colorado.


SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice

OUCH!

This is the same case as came up a while ago.

This sort of thing is a potential risk to all African sport hunting and I'm all for extremely heavy penalties for these crimes.

Look at all the work this guy did, smuggling here and there, buying fraudulent CITES permits, applying to USF&W for a CITES for a Zim leopard, it would have been much easier and cheaper to get a legit CITES permit!

Granted, the leopard was shot in RSA where there are not tons of expert permits, but even worst case, he might just have to wait a year or two.

Stupid is as stupid does.

The man must be brain dead.

I was at the Eastern Sports Show in Pennsylvania when they took him out in cuffs, the Ph from RSA. Missed it by 5 minutes.

Mike

Smuggling is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine,
while the Lacey Act violations are punishable by up to 5 years in prison and
up to a $250,000 fine.


And this is the same law NAPHA is trying to blackmail American hunters with?

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Smuggling is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine,
while the Lacey Act violations are punishable by up to 5 years in prison and
up to a $250,000 fine.


And this is the same law NAPHA is trying to blackmail American hunters with?

I alway thought the poaching convictions in the US to be very, very light.

However when it comes to poaching (with smuggling) abroad they seem way to harsh!

I totally agree the penalties should be very severe, but 2 years in prision for a leopard skin??

If anyone agrees with these penalties what should be the penalties for trafficing cocaine to children or killing human beings?

How much money did this guy make? A couple grant? What should be the jail time for the Enron or Lehman Brothers people who did nothing else but smuggle money (and dreams and lives) in their finantial scheme??

Ddouble,

As I see it, this isn't about money, it's about the fact that the offense involves taking a listed animal without a permit which obviously means the population will be eroded which in turn could very easily mean future quotas may well be reduced which will harm all future hunters...... but more importantly, such incidents could well inspire some anti hunting Governmental type to try to ban imports of all such trophies and then every hunter that wants to take a scheduled animal loses out....... as does the entire African hunting industry.

Ddouble, you are so correct i e penalities for this relatively minor crime vs drug trafficing, slave trading and murder. I mean who was hurt by this offence, just a bit of beauracy BS.

quote:

Originally posted by Die Ou Jagter:
Ddouble, you are so correct i e penalities for this relatively minor crime vs drug trafficing, slave trading and murder. I mean who was hurt by this offence, just a bit of beauracy BS.

Agreed! Got caught and should be punished and fined, but save the jail space for the REAL shit birds in this country. Lord knows there's enough of them.

Just another case of the USFWS getting a hard on because it took them a little elbow grease and detective work to catch these guys and then they decided to throw the book at them to put a feather in their hat.

Scottyboy, yes I agree they should be punished, but make the pain fit the crime. It is like the penality for killing a Eagle or even having an eagle feather.

It's kind of funny how some people react to violations of CITES and the Lacey Act.

If a black man in Africa kills an elephant, lion, or leopard many people will openly say they are poachers and they should be shot!
Why is it when it a rich white guy does it, Some say it's a relatively minor crime? Come on guys these ass ---- are the reason you go threw hell bringing back trophies. Paying a fine is only a nuisance to a rich guy. If you truly want to clean up the up the hunting industry. Put a few more rich guys in pink coveralls and send jail for a few months!

quote:

Originally posted by Robert johnson:
It's kind of funny how some people react to violations of CITES and the Lacey Act.

If a black man in Africa kills an elephant, lion, or leopard many people will openly say they are poachers and they should be shot!
Why is it when it a rich white guy does it, Some say it's a relatively minor crime? Come on guys these ass ---- are the reason you go threw hell bringing back trophies. Paying a fine is only a nuisance to a rich guy. If you truly want to clean up the up the hunting industry. Put a few more rich guys in pink coveralls and send jail for a few months!

Exactly!

No sympathy from me, either.

I hate to say it, but the worst enemy of "the African hunting Industry" is none other than themselves!

Starting from the governments in Africa.

So if an American kills a leopard illegally - without him even KNOWING that! - he can get clobbered by the Lacy Act.

If an African PH steals the trophies of dozens of clients he does not get any punishment.

What happened to that character who won the SCI PH Of The Year Award, then disappeared into thin air with millions owned to his past clients?

Not sure of the name, probably van Der Mullen or something!

Can someone enlighten us what has anyone done to punish him?

What happens to the rogue operators we hear about here who are running illegla operations in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia and Tanzania?

Then you get a so called professional association who is incapable of sorting their own internal problems, who resort to threatening American visitors with the Lacy Act?

The worst enemies of African hunting are in Africa, followed very closely by certain individuals in the USFW.

Saeed, we must not always pay attention to Awards people get, remember Obama got the Noble peace prize????????
Brokeback Mountain won best picture???????
But you are right when are the authorities in Africa going to take responsibility for the action of their peolpe and start punishing them!!! You know how many leopard skin are smuggled in to Namibia from the RSA?? another reason why our quota is FULL!!

quote:

Originally posted by Robert johnson:
It's kind of funny how some people react to violations of CITES and the Lacey Act.

If a black man in Africa kills an elephant, lion, or leopard many people will openly say they are poachers and they should be shot!
Why is it when it a rich white guy does it, Some say it's a relatively minor crime? Come on guys these ass ---- are the reason you go threw hell bringing back trophies. Paying a fine is only a nuisance to a rich guy. If you truly want to clean up the up the hunting industry. Put a few more rich guys in pink coveralls and send jail for a few months!

That sums it up for me.

There were several threads on this as it was going on. One when the first arrests happened, others when indictment and sentenced etc.

Here's just one of many: http://forums.accuratereloadin...=133107949#133107949

As I see it, such behaviour endangers all sport hunting of listed species at the very least and harsh punishments are perfectly justified.

I would get a kick out of this "put rich guys in pink coveralls (some areas use orange) coveralls" if it wasn't so sad. It is all find and good to rag on "rich" guys. Personally I don't care, as I like "rich guys" because a poor man never gave me a job. What would this world be without rich guys.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
I hate to say it, but the worst enemy of "the African hunting Industry" is none other than themselves!

.

Absolutely right. (unfortunately)

Just a couple of things to add to the list are squabbles such as we've recently seen with NAPHA and all those dodgy YouTube videos.

I, for one, will sleep soundly tonight, knowing such a eviiiiillllll criminal is off the streets.

I am glad our 'justice' system takes care of such atrocities.

Maybe now we could worry about guys like this....... link

quote:

I mean who was hurt by this offence,

Me and anybody else who cares about hunting, the animals being hunted and the people who try to do it right. The people involved were morons and deserve to get used as examples.

Dean

quote:

Originally posted by Die Ou Jagter:
I would get a kick out of this "put rich guys in pink coveralls (some areas use orange) coveralls" if it wasn't so sad. It is all find and good to rag on "rich" guys. Personally I don't care, as I like "rich guys" because a poor man never gave me a job. What would this world be without rich guys.

I'm not ragging on rich guys I'm ragging on a poacher and I see no reason why his treatment should be any different from that of an African poacher. Throw the lying POS under the jail for all I care. Rich or poor, black or white, African or American it makes no difference to me.

PS. You better get that resume heading to South Dakota ASAP, it looks like this there is going to be a hiring freeze soon.

Robert and Shakari,

Excellent points! I do agree with them, but there are other ways of seeing it.

1) Robert, a hunter who shot a leopard should not be 2 years in jail with the wrost criminals in the exact same way I totally agree that poor africans should never be shot on sight for poaching.
Particularly very poor people, tribesmen from HUNTER cultures, who should have every right to hunt. It is in our best interest to keep a hunting tradition and culture in Africa (like the 20 dollar resident licenses in some US states).
Do you think poor africans should only sell their animals to richer people becase that pays more for conservation???? This is very complicated stuff...
Brazil is a country where the hunting tradition was striped and when the citzens got econmically a bit richer (yet poor) hunting was banned in the entire country by those in the cities!! Please do not alienate the citzens of african, the hunting cultures living around the hunting grounds of africa, because hunting will be eventualy lost as soon as they have any other little income.

2) Shakari, you are very right that they could be jeopardyzing the future of hunting. And I agree this makes it a very serious offense. Why not fine the guy in 50,000?? Make him work weekends on national parks, or do some other type of work helping researchers to map endagnered animals. Once again, I do agree with you the crime should be severely punished, but not two years in jail as in my huble viewpoint there must be a better way.

This is difficult sutff... best to all

2)

Ddouble,

I take your point but my argument would be that whilst a $50K fine might be a lot to most people it's not a lot to others and whilst I don't know what this guy's circumstances are, it could just be that a fine of that amount just might be a drop in the ocean. In which case, he's effectively gotten away with it. Whereas a custodial sentence will hurt him no matter what his financial circumstances are.

Work in the community might be another option but I don't know how that kind of thing works over there. However, I'd say it's not really sufficient in this case.

As I see it, he should be punished with whatever penalty is stipulated in the act and if there's a leeway in the possible punishment, I'd say the judge should opt for the heavier end of that. Like I said, acts like this could easily result in some anti hunting official wanting to simply stop all scheduled animal imports..... and if that happened, we'd all (hunters, professionals and animals) be buggered!

It's a bit like someone who takes black powder onto an aircraft. One could argue that he was just trying to get the material to his hunting destination and it's no big deal and perhaps he should just face a smallish fine....... but one could equally argue (quite rightly IMO) that his act endangered the aircraft, everyone aboard it and possibly also people on the ground and therefore argue that he should be punished to the full extent of the law and face a very long jail term and a very large fine.

Hey, at least you guys have judges that are prepared to send people to jail for serious time. In the UK, a murderer will usually face no more than 10 years in jail and often less.

A felony conviction results in a Federal lifetime ban on owning firearms, a not so small consequence in my small mind. Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon is a 5 years stay in the Federal pen, btw. Also, Federal judges are pretty well bound by sentencing guidelines (a very screwy system made up by mindless minions with a thing about "points").

Most people found guilty of misdemeanor violations of the Lacey Act do not receive prison terms. Those that receive felony convictions with prison sentences serve their time at minimum security prison.( there are exceptions ) If you "knowingly" violate the Lacey Act you have a very slim chance at getting caught. But if you get caught, It's going to be a VERY BAD day!

Very few people that have been convicted of Lacy Act violations are repeat offenders. Like it or not the Lacy Act works!

Reminds me of the old saying ' If you can't do the time, don't do the crime'

The Lacey Act is a well known piece of legislation and even if he wasn't aware of it, he should have been. Ignorance is no excuse.