Luis Joel Vargas Martell (Vargas) was the co-owner of a home-based saltwater aquarium business, Carebbean Reefers (spelling error intentional) that also operated online through the EBay store “Redragon1975”. A large part of the business was devoted to the sale of…
Coral Smuggler Busted in the Philippines with over 250 Chalice Corals & Shrooms
Chalice corals can be some of the most valuable strains of aquarium corals, and the Philippines has tons of murky reefs where chalice corals thrive. However, the Philippines doesn’t allow any coral exports which has led some criminals to smuggle corals…
USFWS Los Angeles: It is now illegal to import frogspawn & certain deepwater acro species
Update: 9/16/14 4:15PM CT Waiting on a call back from the Office of External Affairs regarding the validity of it being an honest mistake. Update 2: USFWS Los Angeles: We are now advising the trade of coming ESA listings We…
Largest illegal coral seizure in UK history made at Manchester airport
The largest illegal coral seizure ever made in the United Kingdom happened when officials discovered over 750 kilograms of illegal coral and rare clams at the Manchester Airport. The cargo originated in Vietnam then flew through Singapore on its way to the…
All Rhizotrochus are illegally collected and imported
Have you ever wondered why you’ve (most likely) never seen a Rhizotrochus typus available for sale at your LFS? The obvious reason is that their suppliers probably don’t have them because this coral species is simply not legal to collect,…
