Japanese National Pleads Guilty To Smuggling Turtles & Tortoises Into LAX
Atsushi Yamagami, a 39-year old Japanese national, plead guilty on Monday to one felony count of smuggling turtles and tortoises into the United States. Concealed in snack food boxes in a suitcase, a live shipment containing 55 of the reptiles was discovered at LAX in January 2011.
Yamagami is slated for sentencing by United States District Judge George H. King on October 31. He faces a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.
Both Yamagami and Norihide Ushirozako, a 49-year-old who is also involved in the smuggling operation, are assumed residents of Osaka, Japan and have been held in the United States without bond since their January 2011 arrests.
Operation Flying Turtle - the undercover operation that infiltrated the smuggling ring in 2010 - was conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with assistance from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Ushirozako, who pleaded guilty on May 23 for carrying the 55 reptiles into LAX, is scheduled to be sentenced tomorrow.
