Long Beach man sentenced for possessing rare iguanas

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A Long Beach man was sentenced Monday to five years of probation and 2,500 hours of community service and ordered to pay a $2,000 fine for concealing and possessing rare iguanas in the United States, authorities said.

Jereme James, 34, was convicted of one count of concealing and one count of possessing the endangered animals in April. Prosecutors said he brought the reptiles into the U.S. by hiding them in a special compartment in his prosthetic leg, but he was acquitted of smuggling.

The Fiji Island banded iguana is threatened with extinction and is protected under an international treaty known as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

While on a trip to Fiji in September 2002, James allegedly abducted three of the iguanas from an ecological preserve and brought them to the United States, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service began an undercover investigation, during which James told an undercover operative that he sold a trio of Fiji Island banded iguanas for $32,000. When Fish & Wildlife Service agents searched James’ house in July 2007, they found four.

--Tony Barboza

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