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A California couple was sentenced Friday to three years of probation after pleading guilty to pocketing more than $50,000 from the trafficking of protected wildlife parts — including black bear gallbladders, rhinoceros horns and a tiger pelt — to and from Oregon.
Linh Luu, 35, and her husband, Kevin Le, 45, of Anaheim, California, were sentenced after each pleaded guilty in federal court in Eugene to violating the Lacey Act, which prohibits buying or selling wildlife that is illegally imported or exported.
They each were ordered to pay $10,000 in fines to the Cooperative Endangered Species Fund.
The couple got $51,100 from helping a friend in Vietnam illegally import and export the wildlife parts between September 2019 and May 2021, according to prosecutors.
American black bear gallbladders and cougar bones were shipped from Oregon to Vietnam. White and black rhinoceros horns and a tiger pelt were imported to Oregon from Vietnam, and lion teeth were imported from Tanzania to Oregon, according to federal court records.
Black bears and cougars are native to Oregon and are prized by some for use in traditional
Asian medicine. Lions, tigers, and black and white rhinoceroses are also protected
under the Endangered Species Act.
U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane noted that the couple had a home, young children and jobs.
“You put all that at risk, really, just for money,” he said.
According to court records, Luu and Le met an undercover federal agent in December 2020 in a parking lot. They accepted $12,000 in cash as a down payment for part of a rhino horn and discussed ways to avoid U.S. banking regulations that could detect the transaction. They later each received nearly $5,000 in electronic payments for the horn, which was then shipped to Oregon disguised as a household decoration. The sale was discussed as a way to build trust for future, larger deals, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutor Adam Nate said he was disappointed that Luu, after having immigrated to the United States and attended college and graduate school in America, engaged in this “really foolish” crime.
Her defense lawyer, Kobin Patterson, said the felony conviction for Luu could impact her status in the United States. She was on the way to becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen when the wildlife trafficking investigation got underway, putting that in jeopardy now.
Both Linh and Le apologized in court. Patterson said his client was extremely ashamed, embarrassed and afraid.
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