Sailfish, beagles, and...

...turtles. Oh my.

Tom Watts-Fitzgerald is prosecuting a business for selling small turtles. From Vanessa Blum's article last week:

There's a new salmonella threat in South Florida and this time it's tiny turtles, not tomatoes.Federal prosecutor Thomas Watts-Fitzgerald filed misdemeanor charges last week against a Hollywood-based reptile business. The business is accused of violating a public health law banning the sale of turtles with shells less than 4 inches long.Strictly Reptiles, which claims to be the nation's largest wildlife importer/exporter, illegally supplied 400 undersized Mississippi map turtles and 600 Yellow-bellied sliders that turned up for sale at flea markets, kiosks and pet stores, prosecutors allege.Congress enacted the ban in 1975, after public health investigations identified small turtles as a major source of human salmonella infections, particularly in children who liked to put the critters in their mouths.

News & Notes

1. "Sport fishing 'shtick' nets probation term for charter boat operator" via Vanessa Blum. If you can't get enough Tom Watts-Fitzgerald, check out this article:

Rejecting a call for harsher punishment, a federal judge on Thursday ordered the owner of a South Florida charter fishing business to serve five years' probation for not reporting sailfish reeled in by customers and killing undersized fish.Stanley Saffan, 58, of Miami Beach, who pleaded guilty to those charges in February, must also pay $210,000 in financial penalties, forfeit one of his Therapy IV boats to the federal government and perform 500 hours of community service work.A crowd of relatives and supporters who turned out for Saffan's two-day hearing showed relief at the sentence, which was well below the 18 to 24 months' prison term sought by federal prosecutors.U.S. District Judge William Zloch barred Saffan, who runs sport fishing charters out of Baker's Haulover Inlet in North Miami Beach, from serving as captain of a vessel during his probation

2. "Gun box allowed as evidence in ghost ship case" via Jay Weaver. Judge Huck rejected the defense's motion to suppress:

An empty gun lockbox -- considered vital evidence in the case of four Miami Beach charter boat members slain at sea -- will be allowed at the trial of two men charged with their murders, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Paul Huck rejected an attempt by attorneys for defendant Guillermo Zarabozo to suppress evidence gathered by FBI agents at his mother's home -- including the lockbox that may have contained the suspected 9mm handgun used in last fall's killings.
''The point here is not that they found a firearm in a lockbox,'' Huck said. ``It's that they found no firearm in the lockbox.''

"The beagle is basically a stomach on four feet."

Why does Tom Watts-Fitzgerald have to disrespect the beagle like that?

Okay, okay -- he was just explaining how the beagles find illegal cavier at the airport (via the Daily Business Review):

Watts-FitzGerald said in some ways the illegal caviar trade is just as dangerous as the illicit drug market. Since Russia began protecting sturgeon and limiting caviar exports, caviar fishermen from surrounding republics struck back. "They blew up the barracks of what was essentially the equivalent of the old KGB. They were trying to make a point," he said. "The M.O. is very similar [to the drug trade]. Illicit wildlife smuggling is an $8 (billion) to $10 billion business." Caviar smugglers use mules to hide shipments just like drug traffickers. In the 1990s, 500 grams of Beluga caviar was discovered at Miami International Airport in a carry-on bag by the Food and Drug Administration's version of drug-sniffing dogs: the beagle brigade. "The beagle is basically a stomach on four feet," Watts-FitzGerald said. "When he smelled the caviar, he just went crazy." Caviar smugglers sometimes simply re-use old paperwork from legitimate shipments to try to import illegal goods. But distributors have been charged millions of dollars in fines.

Here is what the case is about:

With a worldwide shortage of premium caviar due to a shrinking sturgeon population, some black market importers have turned to an American cousin: a prehistoric-looking river creature, the paddlefish.

Paddlefish roe has qualities similar to Russian caviar — arguably the finest in the world. But the fish also is protected in many U.S. states due to overfishing and habitat loss. Federal prosecutors charged a Plantation man and his company, Bemka House of Caviar, with flouting the strict permitting laws protecting the paddlefish by buying it illegally.

And the indictment (assigned to Chief Judge Moreno) is here.

Fisherman to forfeit boat, faces jail

Vanessa Blum reports here:

In a last minute deal with prosecutors, the owner of a South Florida charter fishing business pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to violating environmental laws by not reporting sailfish reeled in by customers and by killing undersized fish.Prosecutors accused Stanley Saffan, 57, and four employees of coercing anglers to have the illegally caught sailfish mounted by a Broward taxidermy firm in exchange for commissions.The group used high-pressure sales tactics to steer business to Gray Taxidermy Inc. of Pompano Beach, often claiming that because a fish already had been killed it should be made into a trophy, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Watts-Fitzgerald, who is handling the case.
***
A Fort Lauderdale grand jury indicted Saffan and his crew in July on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, obstruction of justice and violating wildlife protection laws.The case had been set for trial Wednesday, but the sides agreed on a deal Tuesday afternoon that dropped the government's most serious charges, said attorney Herbert Cohen, who represents Saffan.

So what are the consequences for something like this:

Under the terms of his plea agreement, Saffan faces up to 10 years in prison. He must forfeit a 45-foot vessel and pay the government 125 percent the appraised value of a 54-foot vessel. Both boats are named Therapy IV.