U.S. Border Patrol Agent Admits Smuggling Protected Tortoises

The attempted importation violated the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, CITES, the Justice Department announced.

According to statements made in court, in March 2006, agent Rene Soliz of Alice, Texas contacted an individual in Dar-Es Salaam, Tanzania, who was selling leopard tortoises.

Soliz asked to buy eight of the tortoises and indicated an interest in buying more at a later date as part of a long-term business relationship.

On April 7, 2006, a U.S. Customs inspector at John F. Kennedy International Airport intercepted the package containing the tortoises being sent to Soliz.

A three-year old leopard tortoise (Photo by Berthold Werner)

The package was labeled as containing 50 live scorpions, but when a U.S. Fish and Wildlife inspector opened the package, he found 14 live leopard tortoises and one dead leopard tortoise.

Prized for the pet trade, leopard tortoises are listed in Appendix II of CITES, which lists species that are not necessarily now threatened with extinction but that may become so unless trade is closely controlled.

International trade in specimens of Appendix II species may be authorized by the granting of an export permit from the exporting country, but no export permit accompanied the tortoises bought by Soliz.

"Soliz traded in a threatened tortoise species in violation of laws, designed to protect wildlife from extinction,” said John Cruden, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division,

"Today's guilty plea affirms the Justice Department's intention to investigate and prosecute individuals who choose to undermine federal wildlife laws and contribute to the endangerment of protected species," he said.

Soliz faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine. As part of the plea agreement, Soliz will resign from the U.S. Border Patrol.

The leopard tortoise, Geochelone pardalis, is the largest of the southern African tortoise species and is found in a variety of habitats in Angola, Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Somali, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

According to the UK-based Tortoise Trust, leopard tortoises are increasingly being bred in captivity, a positive development that could lead to a gradual reduction in demand for wild-caught animals.

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