An Alabama man charged with numerous federal offenses pleaded guilty Monday in New York City to importing a stuffed endangered bird of prey without informing the US Department of the Interior, according to court records.
Toney Jones, a Eufaula man, pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Endangered Species Act in federal court in Brooklyn for failing to register his acquisition of the Levant sparrowhawk with the agency, according to records.
Southeast Europe, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, and Tunisia are home to the Levant sparrowhawk, also known as Accipter brevipes, a small bird of prey. The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Endangered Species estimates its mature population to be between 10,000 and 20,000.
Jones’ boss, Dr. John Waldrop of Georgia, pleaded guilty to both that offense and a conspiracy to import goods into the United States.
Prosecutors claimed the couple had not smuggled live birds when they indicted them last year on conspiracy, smuggling, the Endangered Species Act, and money laundering charges.
According to the indictment, Waldrop and Jones utilized online sales sites like eBay and Etsy to buy birds and eggs from all over the world, including Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Uruguay.
According to the charging document, the pair imported and gathered a variety of protected bird species, including the canary, dipper, duck, eagle, falcon, grouse, gull, hawk, heron, hoopoe, kestrel, kinglet, lapwing, murre, owl, parrot, pochard, rail, teal, snipe, spoonbill, vulture, and woodpecker.
In addition to the plot, Waldrop and Jones faced indictment for violating smuggling and ESA regulations by importing three parcels containing birds and eggs via John F. Kennedy International Airport in 2020.
The parcels contained a Levant sparrowhawk, a grasshopper buzzard hawk, two gull eggs, two murre eggs, and one unidentified bird egg, according to the prosecutors.
Additionally, Waldrop and Jones faced accusations of conspiring to commit money laundering by transferring funds from the United States to finance bird smuggling.