"On Snake Smuggling, Lion Killing, and Fish Crimes"

"The Lacey Act, a 115-year-old law that seeks to protect threatened species, is still going strong."

"Earlier this month, a social worker from Florida pleaded guilty to buying, selling, transporting, and bartering at least 59 illegal snakes, according to the Department of Justice. Last week, a jury in federal court convicted a New Jersey man of trafficking in illegal paddlefish and paddlefish caviar, a crime discovered in a lengthy undercover investigation of the paddlefish black market. And in July, Lou’s Fish Market in the Bronx got busted for a scheme that involved falsifying fishing reports to sell hundreds of thousands of pounds of federally controlled fluke and bass.

Those are just a few of the more recent criminal cases brought by the Environmental Crimes Section of the Department of Justice. The Lacey Act, sponsored in Congress by Iowa Representative John Lacey in 1900, was first established to stop hunters who were avoiding prosecution for illegally killing big game in one state, and then crossing into a state with different fewer hunting restrictions. From those limited beginnings, the law has changed and grown considerably in the past 115 years."

Lauren Kirchner reports for Pacific Standard magazine August 27, 2015.