Trans-border swim bladder smugglers bustedBy Jason Pan / Staff reporter, with CNAA New Taipei City resident in his 30s was arrested earlier this month for allegedly smuggling totoaba swim bladders from Mexico to sell in China, as part of a months-long probe into an international smuggling ring that began with a tip-off from the FBI, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. Local police and customs authorities seized 19kg of totoaba swim bladders between July 28 and Aug. 12 that had a black market price of about US$900,000, the CIB told a news conference at its office in Taipei. CIB Deputy Commissioner Liao Hsun-cheng (廖訓誠) inspected the confiscated haul, while FBI Legal Attache Office representative in Taiwan Nicolas Garcia made a rare public appearance. The trade in totoaba swim bladders has been illegal since 1976, when the giant fish, endemic to the Gulf of California in Mexico, was added to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Garcia thanked the CIB and Customs Administration on behalf of the FBI and the US Fish and Wildlife Service for their efforts.

Source: Taipei Times August 24, 2020 15:56 UTC