Owners of Miami Freight Forwarder Sentenced to Prison for Illegal Wildlife Exports

The owners of a Miami freight forwarder were sentenced to six months in prison and a fine of $7,500 each for illegally exporting live fish to Colombia. Alvaro Cortes, Olga Rodriguez and their company, Planet Express Cargo & Courier Corp. (PECC), falsified shipping manifests and failed to declare the exports to CBP and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Justice Department said Aug. 10. The agency said Cortes and Rodriguez likely exported more than 1,000 illegal shipments of wildlife to Colombia. They had previously pleaded guilty.

Between May 2014 and July 2016, Cortes and Rodriguez told the United Parcel Service that its shipments of live fish contained “aquarium accessories,” Justice said. Because they falsely labeled the exports, they did not apply for permits and did not submit documents to FWS detailing a “listing of the fish and wildlife being exported,” which is required by the Code of Federal Regulations. Employees at PECC “obscured markings” on the shipments that identified them as wildlife by “taping over the labeling and wrapping everything in black plastic.” PECC was placed on probation for four years during the sentencing phase.