Joseph Kelley and James Lewis were each indicted in Newark,
New Jersey, with crimes related to illegally trafficking juvenile American
eels, also known as “elvers” or “glass eels.”
A seven-count indictment was returned on Jan. 18, 2018, charging Kelley
and Lewis with conspiracy to smuggle elvers and violate the Lacey Act.
The Indictment alleges that Kelley and Lewis knowingly
harvested elvers illegally in the states of New Jersey and Massachusetts, and
sold those elvers to dealers or exporters. Among those dealers is Thomas Choi,
who pleaded guilty to related crimes in the District of Maine in 2016, and who
was subsequently sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for those offenses.
The indictments were announced today by Acting Assistant
Attorney General Jeffrey H. Wood for the Justice Department’s Environment and
Natural Resources Division and Acting Director Greg Sheehan of the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service.
Eels are highly valued in east Asia for human
consumption. Historically, Japanese and
European eels were harvested to meet this demand. However, overfishing has led
to a decline in the population of these eels.
As a result, harvesters have turned to the American eel to fill the void
resulting from the decreased number of Japanese and European eels. Because of the threat of overfishing, elver
harvesting is prohibited in the United States in all but two states: Maine and
South Carolina. Maine and South Carolina
heavily regulate elver fisheries, requiring that individuals be licensed and
report all quantities of harvested eels to state authorities.
These indictments were the result of “Operation Broken
Glass,” a multi-jurisdiction, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)
investigation into the illegal trafficking of American eels. To date, the investigation has resulted in
two other indictments, as well as guilty pleas for nineteen other individuals
in Maine, Virginia, and South Carolina.
These defendants combined have admitted to illegally trafficking more
than $4.5 million worth of elvers.
Operation Broken Glass was conducted by USFWS and the
Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section in collaboration with the
Maine Marine Patrol, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Law
Enforcement Division, New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife Bureau of Law
Enforcement, Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
Conservation Police, Virginia Marine Resources Commission Police, USFWS Refuge Law
Enforcement, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Law
Enforcement, Massachusetts Environmental Police, Rhode Island Department of
Environmental Management Division of Law Enforcement, New York State
Environmental Conservation Police, New Hampshire Fish and Game Division of Law
Enforcement, Maryland Natural Resources Police, North Carolina Wildlife
Resource Commission Division of Law Enforcement, Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission, Yarmouth, Massachusetts Division of Natural Resources,
North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina Police Department and the Atlantic States
Marine Fisheries Commission.
The government is represented by Environmental Crimes
Section Trial Attorneys Cassandra Barnum and Shane Waller.
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