Woman Sentenced to 18 Months for Smuggled Exports of Alligators to Canada
A federal judge on Aug. 23 sentenced a woman from Hogansburg, New York, to 18 months in prison for exporting endangered reptiles to Canada, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York. According to the attorney’s office, Olivia Terrance was part of a conspiracy to smuggle over 18,000 endangered and threatened reptiles, including turtles, alligators, iguanas, and chameleons, across the border into Canada in 2009 and 2010. The animals were worth “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
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According to the plea agreement, Terrance received shipments of the reptiles from Florida, Louisiana, and California, and then transported them across the border to a Canadian seller. The animals were transported by car and across the St. Lawrence River by boat. The indictment says Terrance didn’t go through customs ports of entry so she could avoid having to declare the exports. She was caught when law enforcement followed her by car and helicopter after she received a shipment of wildlife and transported it by boat into Canada. Terrance pleaded guilty in April 2013 to conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act and the Endangered Species Act.