Man admits trying to smuggle 850 protected turtles valued at $1.4 million to Hong Kong
Wei Qiang Lin, a Chinese national who lives in Brooklyn, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in New York to attempting to export more than 220 parcels containing around 850 eastern box turtles and three-toed box turtles, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
The turtles, with an estimated market value of $1.4 million, were intercepted by law enforcement at a border inspection, prosecutors said. Officers saw them bound and taped inside knotted socks within the shipping boxes.
Eastern box turtles and three-toed box turtles feature colorful markings and are a 'prized feature' in the domestic and foreign pet market, particularly in China and Hong Kong, prosecutors said. The reptiles are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
Lin also shipped 11 other parcels filled with reptiles, including venomous snakes, prosecutors said. He faces up to five years in prison when he's sentenced Dec. 23.
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
New Orleans mayor indicted for corruption over alleged bodyguard romance
The New Orleans mayor, LaToya Cantrell, was indicted by a federal grand jury Friday on corruption charges involving a purported romance with her former bodyguard. Cantrell, 53, thus became the first New Orleans mayor in the city's 307-year history to be charged by the US government with crimes while still in office. The indictment against Cantrell came after she drew scrutiny for an alleged affair with a now retired New Orleans police officer who had served as her bodyguard. Cantrell and the bodyguard, Jeffrey Vappie, allegedly plotted to foster their personal and romantic relationship while he was clocked in at work and being paid to provide her with protection. As Guardian reporting partner WWL Louisiana reported, Cantrell also allegedly arranged for Vappie to accompany her on at least 14 out-of-state trips, including to Scotland and the United Arab Emirates, claiming concerns about her safety that required protection. The trips cost the New Orleans' city government more than $70,000, not counting Cantrell's travel expenses, the charging documents filed on Friday said. The pair were also accused of using a city-owned apartment on the edge of New Orleans's Jackson Square, in its historic French Quarter neighborhood, to spend time together while Vappie was supposed to be on duty. Cantrell and Vappie, 52, are accused of then seeking to cover up the relationship by using an encrypted messaging program and deleting at least some of the 15,000 messages they exchanged, as well as lying to federal agents, grand jurors, colleagues and the public. When a New Orleans resident took photos of the Cantrell and Vappie dining together and drinking wine, the mayor filed a police report and temporarily obtained a restraining order, he said. Friday's charges also allege that Vappie 'attempted to persuade' New Orleans's interim police superintendent from December 2022 to October 2023, Michelle Woodfork, to 'make it right' and exonerate him as investigators circled. Cantrell then met with Woodfork – in front of Vappie – and told her she would not be offered the long-term superintendent's post, the indictment contended. Cantrell and Vappie are facing charges of wire fraud, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to commit both of those crimes, false statements and untrue declarations to a grand jury. Vappie had already been charged in July 2024 – shortly after he retired from the New Orleans police – with wire fraud and lying to FBI agents. The allegations against him and Cantrell called to mind the 2018 scandal that cost the Nashville mayor, Megan Barry, her job and centered on an affair with her bodyguard, Robert Forrest. Prosecutors who obtained the 2024 charges against Vappie alleged he researched that case online two years beforehand. Friday's charges against Cantrell also come after the September 2024 indictment of New Orleans businessman Randy Farrell. Farrell was charged with exchanging gifts with the mayor so she would allegedly fire a municipal employee who was investigating Farrell's building inspection company. Among the alleged gifts were tickets to a January 2019 New Orleans Saints football game, which was being played with a Super Bowl appearance on the line, a cellphone and lunch at an upscale Ruth's Chris Steak House in the city. Vappie and Farrell had pleaded not guilty to the charges previously filed against them. While the Donald Trump-led US justice department obtained the indictment against Cantrell about seven months into the Republican's second presidency, the federal investigation into the mayor began while Joe Biden – her fellow Democrat – was in his second full year in the Oval Office. The timing of Friday's indictment coincided with the grand jurors being scheduled to wind down their work. Such panels are typically in place for six months, but this one had been extended twice since first convening in February 2024. Cantrell's office issued a statement saying it would not comment on Friday's indictment until it had been reviewed by her defense attorney, Eddie Castaing. At a press briefing, the acting US attorney in New Orleans, Michael Simpson, accused Cantrell and Vappie of 'an incredible betrayal' of the public's trust in its own government. Cantrell, a native of Compton, California, had been a New Orleans city council member before winning election as its first-ever female mayor in November 2017. She succeeded Mitch Landrieu, who later worked for Biden's White House as its infrastructure czar. The Cantrell administration's first four-year term was partly marked by its guiding the city through the Covid-19 pandemic. And, in 2019, New Orleans registered a 47-year low of homicides. Cantrell was re-elected in November 2021, and her second term has been considerably turbulent. The federal investigation began with 2022 subpoenas issued regarding an image consultant she employed. Her husband – Jason, with whom she had a daughter – unexpectedly died in August 2023. And, as the AP noted, her civic profile receded as she locked herself into feuds with a hostile city council while alienating former confidantes as well as supporters. The city council responded by weakening the mayor's power through voter-approved changes to the municipal governing charter. Cantrell and her remaining allies maintain that, as a Black woman, she has been treated differently from her male predecessors. Simpson on Friday denied that race or gender factored into the investigation against Cantrell. Cantrell was term-limited from seeking another stint as mayor and is due to leave office in January. Several candidates have signed up to run to replace her in a primary election set for October. Only one other person who has served as New Orleans mayor has been charged with federal crimes: Ray Nagin. Nagin was the New Orleans mayor when the failure of federal levees there during Hurricane Katrina on 29 August 2005 destroyed the city and caused about 1,400 deaths. He was charged after leaving office and convicted in 2014 on charges of bribery, honest services wire fraud, money laundering, filing false tax returns and conspiracy. He then received a 10-year prison sentence. The Associated Press and WWL Louisiana contributed reporting
The Herald Scotland
2 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Judge leaves Trump in charge of DC police through orders to mayor
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The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
New Mexico Republican candidate gets 80 years for shootings at Democrats' homes
A failed political candidate in New Mexico has been sentenced to 80 years in federal prison for his convictions in a series of drive-by shootings at the homes of state and local lawmakers in the aftermath of the 2020 election. A jury convicted former Republican candidate Solomon Peña in March of conspiracy, weapons and other charges in the shootings in December 2022 and January 2023 on the homes of four Democratic officials in Albuquerque, including the current state house speaker. Prosecutors, who had sought a 90-year sentence, said Peña has shown no remorse and had hoped to cause political change by terrorizing people who held contrary views to him into being too afraid to take part in political life. Peña's lawyers had sought a 60-year sentence, saying their client maintains that he is innocent of the charges. They have said Peña was not involved in the shootings and that prosecutors were relying on the testimony of two men who bear responsibility and accepted plea agreements in exchange for leniency. 'Today was a necessary step toward Mr Peña's continued fight to prove his innocence,' said Nicholas Hart, one of Peña's attorneys, after Wednesday's sentence. 'He looks forward to the opportunity to appeal, where serious issues about the propriety of this prosecution will be addressed.' The attacks took place as threats and acts of intimidation against election workers and public officials surged across the country after Donald Trump and his allies called into question the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Prosecutors said Peña resorted to violence in the belief that a 'rigged' election had robbed him of victory in his bid to serve in the state legislature. The shootings targeted the homes of officials including two county commissioners after their certification of the 2022 election, in which Peña lost by nearly 50 percentage points. No one was injured, but in one case bullets passed through the bedroom of a state senator's 10-year-old daughter. Two other men who had acknowledged helping Peña with the attacks had previously pleaded guilty to federal charges and received years-long prison sentences.
