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Mass. man sentenced for illegally trafficking dozens of endangered animal parts
The man imported the parts from dealers in Cameroon and Indonesia, who would hunt and kill the animals he requested.
A Reading man was sentenced Thursday for trafficking more than 100 endangered and protected animal parts, according to federal prosecutors.
Adam Bied, 40, pleaded guilty in January to two counts of conspiracy to smuggle goods, specifically illegally imported wildlife parts, into the United States, along with two counts of violating the Lacey Act, which prohibits wildlife trafficking.
Bied will serve eight months in prison for his crimes, followed by two years of supervised release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said in a press release. He was also ordered to pay a $75,000 fine “to fund wildlife enforcement efforts.”
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“Trafficking in the remains of endangered and protected animals is not a collector’s hobby — it is a crime that fuels the exploitation of vulnerable species around the world,” U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in the statement. “This defendant knowingly smuggled and profited from the killing of protected animals — some of which were slaughtered at his direction — undermining global conservation efforts.”
The wildlife whose parts Bied imported are protected under multiple endangered species laws, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. From at least January 2018 to at least June 2021, he “bought, sold and traded in wildlife parts and products” from numerous threatened and endangered species.
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The wildlife parts which Bied later surrendered to law enforcement include:
- Orangutan skulls
- Tiger skulls
- Leopard skin, skulls and a claw
- Jaguar skin and skull
- African lion skulls
- Polar bear skull
- Narwhal tusk
- Otter skeleton
- Harp seal skull
- Pangolin skull
- South American fur seal skull
- Elephant seal skull
- Babirusa skulls
- Mandrillus skulls
- Wallaby skull
- Jackal skull
Bied ordered these animal parts from dealers in Cameroon and Indonesia who would kill and acquire wildlife, prosecutors said. Once he illegally received them, he would resell or trade them to customers in the United States.
Investigators recovered text messages between him and his co-conspirators overseas, to whom he gave specific instructions on what skulls to send and the condition in which they should be sent, prosecutors said. He repeatedly instructed one of his dealers in Cameroon to “stop sending me skulls with [bullet] holes,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors found that Bied failed to notify the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services about any of the animal parts he imported or obtain any necessary legal documentation. He and his co-conspirators hid these imports from authorities by “falsely labeling them as ‘decorative masks’ and ‘rodents,’ among other things.”
Bied was caught after he sold two illegally imported leopard skulls to an undercover federal agent, according to prosecutors. He falsely claimed that the skull was decades old, that he had bought it at an auction, and that he believed it had been sold legally.
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