Man arrested on way to Orlando for smuggling coral
ASSOCIATED PRESS • February 13, 2009
Gunther Wenzek, owner of a company called Cora Pet in Essen, Germany, was arrested Wednesday at Dulles International Airport on his way to the Global Pet Expo in Orlando. He was arraigned Friday in federal court in Alexandria.
The indictment alleges that Wenzek tried to smuggle the coral through the port in Portland, Ore.
The coral allegedly came from the Philippines, which bans all coral exports. Federal laws ban importation of wildlife harvested in violation of foreign laws.
German national accused of smuggling endangered coral
Customs officials say the shipment, label as other items, was headed for Woodburn
Saturday, February 14, 2009
BRYAN DENSON
The Oregonian Staff
Something smelled fishy at the Port of Portland.
A federal customs inspector caught a whiff of ocean emanating from a shipping container one day in 2007 and looked inside. A manifest listed the cargo -- shipped from the Philippines to a Woodburn aquarium supply business -- as rock, broken gravel and coral sand. But it looked more like chunks of coral.
Customs officials sent the container back to the Philippines, saying it wasn't properly fumigated. But they kept one bag for examination by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which found it not only held coral, but endangered coral from the Philippines -- a product banned for export since 1977.
Thus began an international smuggling case culminating in this week's arrest of Gunther Wenzek, the 66-year-old owner of Cora Pet in Essen, Germany.
Wenzek appeared in federal court in Alexandria, Va., on Friday on a nine-count indictment that accuses the German national of smuggling; violating the Lacey Act, which prevents the import of wildlife in violation of any foreign or domestic laws; and violating the Endangered Species Act.
"We will not allow criminals to profit from the illegal devastation of the world's coral reefs," Oregon's U.S. attorney, Karin Immergut, said in a written statement. "We will scour the globe for those responsible for this devastation and bring them to justice."
Experts say the looting of coral reefs has serious consequences for fish and invertebrates, which nurse, feed and hide in them. Reefs also act as breakwaters, protecting coastal communities against dangerous storms and surging seas.
After Wenzek's 2007 shipment of coral fragments failed to reach the Woodburn aquarium supplier, he instructed the Oregon importer to hide the nature of his next shipment, the indictment alleges. The importer, unnamed by the government, was told to use tariff numbers identifying the cargo as limestone products.
Two shipments reached the Port of Portland last spring, 40 tons of endangered stony corals. The fragments were hard and bony white, many as big as a man's thumb.
Federal agents seized the coral and identified it from the scientific order Scleractinia, common to the coastal reefs of the Philippines. International law forbids export of the corals, which face extinction.
A federal grand jury in Portland indicted Wenzek last summer, but authorities here had no way of getting him back to the U.S. Germany does not extradite its citizens to face criminal charges in the U.S.
Agents had to wait for a chance to arrest Wenzek outside Germany. Just before Christmas, a television Web site in the Philippines published a story saying the Asian nation was cooperating with U.S. authorities to help nab a German national, unnamed, who had smuggled coral.
Agents learned that Wenzek planned to attend the Global Pet Expo, which ends a three-day run today in Orlando, Fla., and were planning to put him in cuffs there.
They arrested him Wednesday evening at Washington Dulles International Airport.
Bryan Denson: 503-294-7614; [email protected]
ASSOCIATED PRESS • February 13, 2009
Gunther Wenzek, owner of a company called Cora Pet in Essen, Germany, was arrested Wednesday at Dulles International Airport on his way to the Global Pet Expo in Orlando. He was arraigned Friday in federal court in Alexandria.
The indictment alleges that Wenzek tried to smuggle the coral through the port in Portland, Ore.
The coral allegedly came from the Philippines, which bans all coral exports. Federal laws ban importation of wildlife harvested in violation of foreign laws.
German national accused of smuggling endangered coral
Customs officials say the shipment, label as other items, was headed for Woodburn
Saturday, February 14, 2009
BRYAN DENSON
The Oregonian Staff
Something smelled fishy at the Port of Portland.
A federal customs inspector caught a whiff of ocean emanating from a shipping container one day in 2007 and looked inside. A manifest listed the cargo -- shipped from the Philippines to a Woodburn aquarium supply business -- as rock, broken gravel and coral sand. But it looked more like chunks of coral.
Customs officials sent the container back to the Philippines, saying it wasn't properly fumigated. But they kept one bag for examination by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which found it not only held coral, but endangered coral from the Philippines -- a product banned for export since 1977.
Thus began an international smuggling case culminating in this week's arrest of Gunther Wenzek, the 66-year-old owner of Cora Pet in Essen, Germany.
Wenzek appeared in federal court in Alexandria, Va., on Friday on a nine-count indictment that accuses the German national of smuggling; violating the Lacey Act, which prevents the import of wildlife in violation of any foreign or domestic laws; and violating the Endangered Species Act.
"We will not allow criminals to profit from the illegal devastation of the world's coral reefs," Oregon's U.S. attorney, Karin Immergut, said in a written statement. "We will scour the globe for those responsible for this devastation and bring them to justice."
Experts say the looting of coral reefs has serious consequences for fish and invertebrates, which nurse, feed and hide in them. Reefs also act as breakwaters, protecting coastal communities against dangerous storms and surging seas.
After Wenzek's 2007 shipment of coral fragments failed to reach the Woodburn aquarium supplier, he instructed the Oregon importer to hide the nature of his next shipment, the indictment alleges. The importer, unnamed by the government, was told to use tariff numbers identifying the cargo as limestone products.
Two shipments reached the Port of Portland last spring, 40 tons of endangered stony corals. The fragments were hard and bony white, many as big as a man's thumb.
Federal agents seized the coral and identified it from the scientific order Scleractinia, common to the coastal reefs of the Philippines. International law forbids export of the corals, which face extinction.
A federal grand jury in Portland indicted Wenzek last summer, but authorities here had no way of getting him back to the U.S. Germany does not extradite its citizens to face criminal charges in the U.S.
Agents had to wait for a chance to arrest Wenzek outside Germany. Just before Christmas, a television Web site in the Philippines published a story saying the Asian nation was cooperating with U.S. authorities to help nab a German national, unnamed, who had smuggled coral.
Agents learned that Wenzek planned to attend the Global Pet Expo, which ends a three-day run today in Orlando, Fla., and were planning to put him in cuffs there.
They arrested him Wednesday evening at Washington Dulles International Airport.
Bryan Denson: 503-294-7614; [email protected]
