Ostrich Egg Smuggler Is Sentenced
The former owner of a San Diego County ostrich ranch who pleaded guilty to smuggling 193 ostrich eggs into the United States from South Africa was sentenced in federal court Monday to six months house arrest and fined $50,000, federal authorities said.
Philip Andrew Rhodes Sargent, 54, a South African who lives in Escondido, was arrested in October after U.S. Customs and Fish and Wildlife Service officials investigated reports that Sargent had a contract to provide a Texas ostrich breeder with 100 chicks.
Sargent was found to have illegally imported eggs hidden in chocolate boxes.
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