BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) - A Pennsylvania man is going to spend two years on supervised release after he had previously pleaded guilty to charges that he smuggled six parrots into the United States by carrying them across the U.S.-Canadian border, prosecutors said.
A surveillance image shows Jafet Rodriguez, 40, of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, retrieving the birds on Dec. 30, 2019, from a car parked by the Haskell Library in Stanstead, Quebec.
Prosecutors say he then carried them to a car in Derby Line, Vermont. He was later arrested by Border Patrol agents.
Rodriguez’s attorney did not return a call Tuesday seeking comment.
Court records say experts determined that four of the birds were Yellow-headed Amazon parrots. The other two were white-bellied Parrots. Both species are protected by an international agreement.
After his apprehension, Rodriguez said he had made arrangements with people in New York to buy the birds from someone in Canada. Rodriguez told agents he didn’t know that he had crossed the border when he picked up the birds, but he said he had seen the border marker.
After being quarantined, the birds were sent to a zoo in North Carolina.
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