Port Richey Couple Indicted For Sale Of Endangered Wildlife

PORT RICHEY, FL — A federal grand jury sitting in Tampa has unsealed an indictment against a Port Richey couple accused of smuggling items made from the protected wildlife.

Novita Indah, 48, and Larry Malugin, 51, have been charged with conspiracy and trafficking in protected wildlife. They are accused of smuggling products from Indonesia and selling them out of their home.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seized 369 items from their home on Jan. 12, 2017, including Javan spitting cobra, reticulated python and monitor lizard taxidermy mounts, belts, and wallets, as well as a babirusa skull, a rare Indonesian pig prized for its distinctive curving tusks.

The indictment alleges that, beginning in 2011, Indah and Malugin sold wildlife on eBay from their Indonesian home to buyers across the world. They would smuggle the items to purchasers in the United States in packages falsely labeled to conceal their contents. Indah and Malugin continued to sell wildlife after they moved to Puerto Rico and ultimately Florida in 2013. All the wildlife was protected by an international treaty, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

The United States, Indonesia and 181 other countries are signatories to the treaty, which provides a mechanism for regulating international trade in species whose continued survival is threatened by trade. In addition to the seized wildlife, Indah and Malugin also trafficked in taxidermy mounts and bones of leopard cats, owls and Southeast Asian primates, including slow loris, macaques, lutungs, and langurs.

“The CITES agreement was created to prevent the international trade of protected wildlife, and the Department of Justice will seek to prosecute individuals who flout this treaty and other important environmental laws,” said Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “The department commends the actions taken by USFWS and will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to combat illegal wildlife trafficking.”

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement is committed to combating wildlife trafficking and protecting imperiled species at home and abroad,” said Edward Grace, assistant director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Law Enforcement. “The increased use of the Internet has opened a growing pathway for the illegal wildlife trade and wildlife traffickers go to great lengths to smuggle reptiles, birds, primates and other species in and out of the U.S."

From 2011 to 2017, Indah and Malugin made approximately 4,596 online sales of CITES-protected wildlife worth about $211,212. USFWS and customs inspectors repeatedly seized packages shipped by Indah and Malugin, but they continued to sell wildlife using various eBay and PayPal accounts.

This investigation was part of Operation Global Reach, a USFWS long-term task force into the flow of illegal wildlife from Indonesia to the United States.

If convicted, Indah and Malugin face a maximum sentence of 20 years’ incarceration on the smuggling charges and five years for the Lacey Act violations. The indictment also seeks to forfeit the wildlife seized from their residence.