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REPTILE SMUGGLER EXTRADITED TO

WASHINGTON -- A two-year effort to extradite a reputed international wildlife smuggling kingpin ended last night when the Mexican government turned over to the United States Keng Liang "Anson" Wong, 42, of Penang, Malaysia. Wong faces trial in San Francisco on federal charges that he spearheaded an international wildlife smuggling ring, which successfully smuggled about 300 protected animals to the United States by concealing them in Federal Express packages, airline baggage and other shipments.

Wong was transported last night from Mexico City to San Francisco. He is scheduled to appear today before U.S. Magistrate Joseph C. Spero in San Francisco.

Between 1995 and 1998, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducted an undercover investigation of Wong and his Malaysian wildlife import-export business, Sungai Rusa Wildlife. During the investigation, the Service documented 14 illegal shipments by Wong into the United States from Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, containing protected reptiles worth nearly a half million dollars. In July 1998, a federal grand jury indicted Wong on 51 federal charges related to his alleged wildlife smuggling enterprise. In September 1998, an undercover USFWS agent posing as a reptile trafficker lured Wong to Mexico City, where he was arrested by the Government of Mexico on the U.S. charges and incarcerated pending extradition to this country.

Wong fought the extradition process for nearly two years until, on June 16, he filed papers in the Mexican courts seeking to terminate his extradition fight.

Wong is charged in San Francisco with conspiracy, smuggling, money laundering, making false statements, and violating federal wildlife statutes that prohibit trafficking in animals that are protected by federal or international law. Wong also was indicted by a federal grand jury in Florida in 1992 on wildlife smuggling charges, but he never appeared in the United States to answer those charges.

Wong and his associates are alleged to have employed a variety of schemes to clandestinely transport protected animals to the United States, such as using a human courier who concealed wildlife in airline baggage; sending animals concealed in fraudulently labeled Federal Express shipments; and concealing illegal animals within large commercial shipments of legal animals. The smuggling ring trafficked in several reptile species that are extremely endangered in the wild, including the Komodo Dragon and the rarest tortoise species on Earth, the Madagascan Spurred Tortoise, also known as the Plowshare Tortoise.

Of the approximately 300 animals allegedly smuggled into the United States, 38 of them are listed as "endangered" or its equivalent under both U.S. law and the international wildlife treaty called the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES. The Plowshare Tortoise is of particular concern because about 70 animals were stolen in 1996 from a breeding project in their native country of Madagascar and became the subject of an intense search by both law enforcement officials worldwide and international wildlife preservation groups. Authorities in the Netherlands are believed to have recovered some of the stolen animals.

In the Florida case, Wong allegedly conspired to smuggle endangered Fiji banded iguanas, Bengal monitor lizards, and Indian soft-shelled turtles into the United States from Malaysia for sale to a reptile dealer in Florida.

Charged with Wong in the San Francisco case are James Michael Burroughs, of San Francisco, Calif.; Beau Lee Lewis, of Buckeye, Ariz.; Jeffery Charles Miller, of Mesa, Ariz.; Robert G. Paluch, of Mesa, Ariz., and Yuk Wah "Oscar" Shiu, of Hong Kong, China. Burroughs has pleaded guilty to several charges and awaits sentencing; Wong's other co-defendants currently await trial.

"Today's surrender of Anson Wong, which was preceded by cooperation in his arrest and favorable decisions by the Mexican Government regarding his extradition, reflect an unprecedented level of coordination between the United States and Mexico and among federal officials in both countries," said Lois J. Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General for Environment and Natural Resources. "I'm proud of the results of that hard work. Together, we will stop those who want to get rich quick by trafficking in endangered species."

According to INTERPOL, the value of illegally traded wildlife is approximately $6 billion annually. This trade contributes directly to the extinction of protected species. The CITES treaty, of which the United States, Mexico and 149 other countries are signatories, is the principal international tool for regulating cross-border trade in species threatened with extinction. Rare species are prized by underground reptile dealers and collectors alike. The scarcity of a particular species often is reflected by the price it commands.

The maximum penalties for the money laundering offenses are 20 years imprisonment and/or a $500,000 fine; the remaining charges each carry a maximum of five years imprisonment and/or $250,000 fine.

An indictment is a formal allegation that one or more persons has violated federal criminal law. Every defendant is presumed innocent until, and unless, proven guilty.

The arrests resulted from cooperative efforts by the Justice Department, the Mexican Attorney General's Office, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Customs Service, INTERPOL and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Canada.

The case is being 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. No trial date has been scheduled.

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