Louisiana man charged with poaching more than 1,700 turtles, exporting them to Taiwan

A federal magistrate judge in Phoenix ordered a Louisiana man held in custody Wednesday following his arrest on charges he poached and sold more than 1,700 turtles from Florida habitats and helped export them to Taiwan using allegedly false captive-bred claims, the Justice Department announced.

Albert Bazaar, formerly of Angie, Louisiana, was arrested after an indictment in San Francisco charged him with conspiracy and multiple violations of the Lacey Act, a federal law that criminalizes the sale or transport in interstate commerce of wildlife taken in violation of state law. A status conference is scheduled for May 14 in Phoenix, prosecutors said.

According to the indictment, Bazaar poached and sold more than 1,700 loggerhead musk turtles, 100 stripe-neck musk turtles, and 15 striped mud turtles from their native habitats in Florida between January 2022 and December 2023. Florida law protects freshwater and marine turtle species from unregulated harvest. The turtles were estimated to be worth more than $550,000 in the Asian pet trade, prosecutors said.

The indictment alleges Bazaar worked with a co-conspirator based in San Francisco who exported the turtles to Taiwan while falsely claiming they were captive-bred in order to obtain export permits. Prosecutors described eight separate transactions in which Bazaar sold illegally collected turtles to the exporter, who in turn financed Bazaar’s poaching trips from Louisiana to Florida — including providing money to purchase a boat and van, according to court documents.

Bazaar is also charged with creating a declaration submitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that falsely stated the turtles were lawfully bred in Alabama and Georgia, prosecutors said.

Loggerhead musk turtles, stripe-neck musk turtles and striped mud turtles are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, known as CITES, a treaty signed by the United States and 184 other governments restricting international wildlife sales without a permit.

If convicted, Bazaar faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each of the conspiracy and Lacey Act charges, prosecutors said.

The case was developed as part of Operation Southern Hot Herps, a joint federal and state effort to combat turtle poaching across the southeastern United States. Agencies involved included the Fish and Wildlife Service, Homeland Security Investigations, and wildlife enforcement agencies in Florida, California and Alabama.

Advertisement Advertisement

Senior Trial Attorney Ryan Connors and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Chambers are prosecuting the case.

The indictment contains allegations, and Bazaar is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

This article was constructed with the assistance of artificial intelligence and published by a member of The Washington Times' AI News Desk team. The contents of this report are based solely on The Washington Times' original reporting, wire services, and/or other sources cited within the report. For more information, please read our AI policy or contact Steve Fink, Director of Artificial Intelligence, at sfink@washingtontimes.com

The Washington Times AI Ethics Newsroom Committee can be reached at aispotlight@washingtontimes.com.