U.S. Charges Man With Importing Nonnative Fish

Federal agents arrested a Koreatown market owner Friday on charges of importing live northern snakehead fish, a foreign species that can breathe air, walk on land and voraciously feed on native fish and other animals.

Sung Chul “Daniel” Rhee, 46, of Glendale was arrested at his Los Angeles store by agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Rhee appeared in court Friday but did not enter a plea, said U.S. attorney’s spokesman Thom Mrozek. Rhee was expected to post $100,000 bail late Friday and was scheduled to return to court June 3, Mrozek said.

A complaint filed against Rhee earlier this week alleges three counts of illegally importing injurious fish to the United States. Each count carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Authorities allege that he imported the live fish from South Korea in three shipments in June 2003 and sold them at his market, Assi Super, for $14.99 a pound.

The fish were hidden in larger shipments of fresh food from South Korea’s Hae Won Seafood via Korean Air, and the snakeheads were labeled “sea bass” or “bass, freshwater fish,” prosecutors said.

Extrapolating the amount of “sea bass” imported by Assi Super, the Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that Rhee generated nearly $23,000 in sales of snakehead fish in 2002 and the first half of 2003, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Snakeheads are native to Asia and Africa. They can overwhelm native populations of fish, crustaceans and amphibians, and can even eat birds and mammals.

Their ability to breathe air and walk over land allows them to spread from one body of water to another.

In a notorious incident, snakeheads were found to have infested a Crofton, Md., pond in 2002. They were traced to a man who discarded two fish he bought live in a New York market. A snakehead was found last month in a pond 20 miles away. The pond was drained and declared free of the fish.