HARRISBURG - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Haixi Sheng, age 20, a native and citizen of China, was sentenced on Oct. 11, 2019, by Senior United States District Court Judge Sylvia H. Rambo to one year and one day imprisonment for smuggling goods from the United States.
According to United States Attorney David J. Freed, Sheng fraudulently and knowingly exported and sent Gulf Coast box turtles to China in November 2017 via the United States mail. The Gulf Coast box turtle is a protected species under Federal law and cannot be exported from the United States without prior approval from the United States Fish & Wildlife Service. Sheng pled guilty to smuggling the protected turtles without the required authorization to export wildlife from the United States to China.
This case was investigated by the United States Fish & Wildlife Service, with assistance from the United States Postal Inspection Service. Assistant United States Attorney James T. Clancy and Special Assistant United States Attorney Brian G. McDonnell prosecuted the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
