Montreal woman sentenced to jail time in U.S. for wildlife trafficking
A 27-year-old Montreal woman has been sentenced in New York State following her conviction of "trafficking in protected wildlife," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Vanessa Rondeau was sentenced to time served and one year of supervised release by a judge from the Western District of New York, according to a statement released by the Department of Justice on Wednesday.
She was also ordered to pay restitution of $1,364 and a $40,000 criminal fine.
Rondeau was first arrested in May 2021 after she tried to cross the U.S. border into Canada at Highgate Springs, Vermont, with "numerous undeclared wildlife items," including a three-toed sloth, 18 crocodile skulls and heads and seven crocodile feet, according to documents filed in federal court in Vermont.
All wildlife must be declared to the Fish and Wildlife Service upon import into the United States and before its export from that country, under the Endangered Species Act.
Rondeau, the owner of The Old Cavern Boutique in Montreal, was also alleged at the time to be in possession of two horseshoe crabs, 30 sea stars, 23 raccoon feet, eight African antelope horns, one human skull "with mounted butterflies," four puffer fish and six shark jaws.
The woman's 2021 attempt to cross the border was not her first transgression.
She successfully made the journey 18 times between November 2018 and September 2019, mostly at the Champlain, N.Y. port of entry, including a dozen times between midnight and 2 a.m., according to Ryan Bessey, a special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who worked undercover on the case.
After Bessey started communicating with Rondeau online in January 2020, the woman agreed to sell him a polar bear skull for $780.
To get it to him, she entered the U.S. at the Champlain, N.Y. border crossing with the skull in her possession – a violation of the Endangered Species Act, and then shipped it to him in Amherst N.Y.
The undercover agent received the package, and then Rondeau agreed online to sell him another polar bear skull for $584.11.
This time she sent it using Canada Post and labelled the package as containing "1 Cadre, which is the French word for frame," the statement reads.
The U.S. Attorney's Office estimated the monetary value of all the protected wildlife Rondeau either shipped or brought across the border to total approximately $37,204.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had also intercepted packages containing skulls from a bird, a weasel, a bat and the skin from a Hartmann's zebra, another protected species, an affidavit stated.
Environment and Climate Change Canada also assisted with the investigation.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Orca calf that was trapped in B.C. lagoon for weeks swims free
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
'I was scared': Ontario man's car repossessed after missing two repair loan payments
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
Powerful tornado tears across Nebraska, weather service warns of 'catastrophic' damage
Devastating tornadoes tore across parts of eastern Nebraska and northeast Texas Friday as a multi-day severe thunderstorm event ramped up in the central United States, injuring at least three people.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Trump's lawyers try to discredit testimony of prosecution's first witness in hush money trial
Donald Trump's defence team attacked the credibility Friday of the prosecution's first witness in his hush money case, seeking to discredit testimony detailing a scheme between Trump and a tabloid to bury negative stories to protect the Republican's 2016 presidential campaign.