The Justice Department has announced that on April 8, 2011, Stephen Delaney, president of South Shore Fisheries in Massachusetts, was found guilty of falsely labeling frozen fish fillets from China, in violation of the Lacey Act and the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic (FD&C) Act for misbranding seafood.
Lacey Act
The Lacey Act and subsequent amendments make it unlawful to import, export, transport, sell, receive, or acquire any plant, fish or wildlife obtained in violation of U.S., tribal or foreign law, as well as any injurious wildlife. The law is administered by the Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and CBP. APHIS has been implementing Lacey Act declaration requirements since 2009. Lacey Act declarations may be filed by the importer of record or its licensed customs broker, and include information on imported item's species name, value, quantity, and country where it was harvested.
The International Trade Data System Board's recent fiscal year 2010 report contains an update on the progress of ITDS implementation by Participating Government Agencies since 2009, and includes information on pilots with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Coast Guard, Environmental Protection Agency, and Food Safety and Inspection Service; in addition to an antidumping/countervailing duty ACE module with the International Trade Administration, and an interface for the DOT’s planned International Freight Data System and ACE. Other PGAs worked on their agreements with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The Fish and Wildlife Service has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget a final rule to list one or more of the nine species of large constrictor snakes as injurious wildlife under the Lacey Act. An injurious wildlife listing would prohibit the importation into, or transportation between, States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any U.S. territory or possession by any means, except by permit for zoological, educational, medical, or scientific purposes.
Broker Power is providing readers with some of the top stories for March 28-April 1, 2011 in case they were missed last week.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has announced that Mark Platt, of Shifco, Inc. of Florida, and Northern Fisheries, Ltd., of Rhode Island, were sentenced on March 25, 2011 based on their earlier pleas to conspiring to mislabel seafood, in violation of the Lacey Act.
An official from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is encouraging the public to submit comments as part of the agency’s review of the Lacey Act Declaration requirements for imported plants and plant products. Once this review is completed, APHIS will submit a report to Congress detailing its results and is authorized to issue certain regulations.
This notice is a reminder that the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is requesting comments from the public by April 14, 2011 to assist in its review of the Lacey Act Declaration requirements for imported plants and plant products. Once this review is completed, APHIS will submit a report to Congress detailing its results and is authorized to issue certain regulations.
The Fish and Wildlife Service has issued a press release by the Department of Justice announcing that Kemo Sylla and Mamadi Doumbouya have been sentenced to 10 months and 14 months of incarceration, respectively, for their felony convictions under the Lacey Act, which, together with the U.S. Endangered Species Act, prohibits the sale or transportation of protected wildlife. Sylla and Doumbouya were the final two defendants to be sentenced among six defendants convicted of illegally importing elephant ivory.
Broker Power is providing readers with some of the top stories for February 28 -- March 4, 2011 in case they were missed last week.
The Justice Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) have announced that David Place, the owner of Manor House Antiques Cooperative in Massachusetts, was sentenced to 33 months in prison for illegally importing and trafficking in Narwhal tusks and Sperm Whale teeth in violation of the Lacey Act.