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bajaguy
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Location: Carson City, NV/Ensenada - Baja Country Club
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Mood: must be 5 O'clock somewhere in Baja
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Totoaba Smuggler Convicted
From the LA Times
8-12-2014
A 75-year-old Calexico man was sentenced Monday to a year in federal prison after being convicted of smuggling 241 fish bladders into the U.S. to sell
on the lucrative black market.
Song Shen Zhen was arrested in April 2013 after authorities at the border crossing in Imperial Valley found 27 fish bladders hidden in his car and an
additional 214 at his nearby home.
The bladders were from the endangered Totoaba fish, which is protected by environmental laws in the U.S. and Mexico. The fish is native only to the
Gulf of California.
The Totoaba fish bladders are prized in Asia and the U.S. as ingredients for soup, as well as for supposed medicinal and cosmetic purposes. An
individual bladder can bring up to $5,000 in the U.S., according to court documents.
At Zhen's home, authorities found drying fans and packaging materials that could be used to ship the bladders overseas, prosecutors said.
U.S. District Judge Marilyn Huff also ordered Zhen to pay $120,500 in restitution to the Mexican environmental protection agency.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-fish-bladders-sm...
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55steve
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Excellent news!
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MMc
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One year seems light. One year is better then less then one year!
"Never teach a pig to sing it frustrates you and annoys the pig" - W.C.Fields
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bajacalifornian
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Agreed 55steve. Dismal, but excellent news!
American by birth, Mexican by choice.
Signature addendum: Danish physicist — Niels Bohr — who said, “The opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth.
Jeff Petersen
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redhilltown
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I guess it is up to U.S. (us) to enforce this... but great news
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bajalearner
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| Quote: | Originally posted by MMc
One year seems light. One year is better then less then one year! |
A year in prison is a long time in my mind. And a hundred twenty grand is allot of money for me.
I think the jail time is about right for a non violent crime but the fine payable to MX should be maybe 20 grand. And another fine of 24 grand paid
to the US to pay for the cost locking him up for a year. Two grand a month seems about right.
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Howard
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The average cost in California for an inmate was $47,421 in 2012. The way I see it, that is the amount plus all associated court costs, that he
should have to pay back.
I do suppose taking out HIS bladder would be a little to harsh. 
We don't stop playing because we grow old;
we grow old because we stop playing
George Bernard Shaw
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bajalearner
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I don't know if he is guilty of a federal crime or a CA crime but either way, the cost of locking him up is ridicules. The CA cost is too high so I
thought two grand a month is a good amount. Why pass the ridiculous cost on to a person when it's the government wasting money? But should he be
locked up at all?
Another thing in my mind is that this guy is Asian and from a culture that accepts the taking of fish parts for stupid uses. So should a stupid
person be locked up for years? Or should a stupid person be fined so it really hurts his living situation but also keeps him working and sends money
to a good use? I think he should only be fined about a 6 months income, say 25 grand even if he has to make payments for many years.
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akshadow
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75 years old.
A one year jail term is a large percentage of his remaining life. But fines also need to be high enough to confiscate all possible.
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woody with a view
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I think you can spend a year in county jail(s) after sentencing. any longer and you go upstream to the big house. his lawyer prolly tried to keep him
local to his family as opposed to whatever big house the state would sentence him to. assuming it's his 1st conviction, sounds about right!
btw, if he dies tomorrow does the state have a lien on his chopsticks for the rest of the money?
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willardguy
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and of course, a cartel connection!
First it was moving marijuana and cocaine across the border. Then, it was human smuggling. Now, it appears Mexico’s drug cartels are getting involved
in the lucrative – and slightly peculiar – business of trafficking the bladders of exotic fish to Asia.
News of this fishy business began surfacing in June following the murder of Samuel Gallardo Castro, alias "El Samy," – the leader of a Mexican
organized crime group in the Sonoran town of El Golfo de Santa Clara. A man confessed to local authorities that he killed the drug boss because
Gallardo owed him $1 million for a shipment of bladders from the totoaba fish.
The man was released because authorities doubted his “mental faculties,” but his statement was not the first time the murky business of the
underground fish bladder trade has made headlines in Mexico.
The totoaba’s large swim bladder, which controls its buoyancy, is a delicacy in China, where it’s placed in soup and can cost as much as $25,000 a
bowl. An investigation by the online news site Mexicali Digital revealed that the bladders can fetch anywhere from $7,000 to $14,000 a piece in the
black market. The totoaba bladders are normally taken from the Gulf of California and shipped to the United States before making their way across the
Pacific Ocean to various Asian ports.
The totoaba is related to the drum fish and can grow up to seven feet in length, weigh 200 pounds and live for around 25 years. Tototaba are listed as
an endangered species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act since 1979 and, because the species is federally protected in both the U.S. and Mexico, it
is illegal to take, possess, transport or sell Totoaba.
Besides the U.S. classification, the fish has been labelled an endangered species by a number of groups due to both poaching for its bladder and also
the diversion of water from the Colorado River within the United States – where they spawn – which has left little or no fresh water to reach the
delta and greatly altered the environment in the delta and the salinity of the upper Sea of Cortez.
Mexican authorities in 2013 dismantled a group of smugglers trafficking totoaba in the Sea of Cortez, seizing parts of the fish worth between $35,000
and $60,000 and arresting four people. Last April, U.S. federal authorities filed criminal charges against seven individuals for their role in
plundering and smuggling Totoaba bladders.
"Many species, including the Totoaba, are teetering on the brink of extinction due to poaching to supply the illegal wildlife trade. While we may
never know how many Totoaba bladders were harvested illegally, such disregard for the protections that were put in place to benefit this endangered
species could have a disastrous effect on the fish population,” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Deputy Chief Edward Grace said in a press release.
Marine life poaching has become a major issue throughout Latin America with the security website InSight Crime reporting instances of shark fin
poachers working in Costa Rica, dolphins illegally slaughtered in Peru, and, besides the fish bladders, sea horses and sea cucumbers are also hunted
in Mexico.
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woody with a view
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how much do you wanna bet that they just chop up an old smelly cat fish bladders and put it in those soups?
$25000 per bowl?
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bajabuddha
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Howard
I do suppose taking out HIS bladder would be a little to harsh.
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How about just a few inches below it?  
I don't have a BUCKET LIST, but I do have a F***- IT LIST a mile long!
86 - 45*
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Howard
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It would give the next poacher something to think about.
We don't stop playing because we grow old;
we grow old because we stop playing
George Bernard Shaw
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Tomas Tierra
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The white sea bass has the same or very similar bladder... Smaller, yes. But very viable for the "soup"
WSB are being harvested like mad! Nobody cares about the swim bladder? Always been curious about this
I would love to one day see a totuaba... I guess it starts with going to the gulfside... Maybe someday
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monoloco
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| Quote: | Originally posted by bajalearner
I don't know if he is guilty of a federal crime or a CA crime but either way, the cost of locking him up is ridicules. The CA cost is too high so I
thought two grand a month is a good amount. Why pass the ridiculous cost on to a person when it's the government wasting money? But should he be
locked up at all?
Another thing in my mind is that this guy is Asian and from a culture that accepts the taking of fish parts for stupid uses. So should a stupid
person be locked up for years? Or should a stupid person be fined so it really hurts his living situation but also keeps him working and sends money
to a good use? I think he should only be fined about a 6 months income, say 25 grand even if he has to make payments for many years.
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They would save a lot if they just put an ankle bracelet on the low level offenders and checked them into
cheap motels with no cable TV and had fast food delivered to them. That might be considered cruel and unusual punishment though.
"The future ain't what it used to be"
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weebray
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Meanwhile, Totoava is on the menu at at least one restaurant here in La Paz and it's not 25 grand a plate.
Every beautiful beach in the world needs a few condo towers - NOT.
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beachbum1A
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Location: Punta Banda, BC
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| Quote: | Originally posted by weebray
Meanwhile, Totoava is on the menu at at least one restaurant here in La Paz and it's not 25 grand a plate. |
ARE YOU SERIOUS!?
Just do it!
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durrelllrobert
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| Quote: | Originally posted by akshadow
A one year jail term is a large percentage of his remaining life. But fines also need to be high enough to confiscate all possible.
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$120,000 fine is exactly 10x the market value of the 240 bladders he had in his possession.
Bob Durrell
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durrelllrobert
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| Quote: | Originally posted by monoloco
| Quote: | Originally posted by bajalearner
I don't know if he is guilty of a federal crime or a CA crime but either way, the cost of locking him up is ridicules. The CA cost is too high so I
thought two grand a month is a good amount. Why pass the ridiculous cost on to a person when it's the government wasting money? But should he be
locked up at all?
Another thing in my mind is that this guy is Asian and from a culture that accepts the taking of fish parts for stupid uses. So should a stupid
person be locked up for years? Or should a stupid person be fined so it really hurts his living situation but also keeps him working and sends money
to a good use? I think he should only be fined about a 6 months income, say 25 grand even if he has to make payments for many years.
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They would save a lot if they just put an ankle bracelet on the low level offenders and checked them into
cheap motels with no cable TV and had fast food delivered to them. That might be considered cruel and unusual punishment though.
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Even putting them on a cruise ship for a year would be less costly then prison.
Bob Durrell
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