MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER (Alabama) 22 August 07 Turtle smuggler pleads guilty
Mobile (AP): A Florida man who has sold turtles for decades admitted in federal court that he smuggled rare and endangered Alabama red-belly turtles across state lines.
Carol Gene Arnold, 63, pleaded guilty Monday to one misdemeanor count of violating the Endangered Species Act.
The Press-Register report­ed that Arnold faces proba­ble probation after admit­ting to conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act, which prohib­its the transportation of wildlife that was knowingly captured illegally.
"I'm guilty ... I was misled by a lot of people on this, but I am guilty," he told Senior U.S. District Judge Charles Butler Jr. "I knew what I was doing was wrong."
Arnold said outside the courtroom that he arranged to pick up the Tennessee tur­tles in Mobile because it was roughly halfway between there and his home in Boni­fay, Fla., about 50 miles north of Panama City, Fla.
He said he has bought and raised turtles -- legally -- for 30 years, selling them to turtle farms in Louisiana that supply pet stores.
Arnold's ex-wife, Cheryl Arnold, and the man she lives with, Jimmy Wilder, are scheduled to be ar­raigned in Mobile next month. They are accused of helping Carol Arnold load the turtles into a pickup and taking them to Mississippi.
Turtle smuggler pleads guilty