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Judge fillets felonious fishermen
By Scott E. Williams
The Daily News Published July 22, 2006
GALVESTON - U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent gave maximum sentences Friday to two men on a commercial fishing boat whose red snapper catch violated several environmental laws.
When the fishing vessel Thanh Tam returned to its dock in Port Bolivar on March 1, 2005, federal and state agents were waiting.
Agents of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found a hidden compartment in the boat.
Inside the compartment were more than 5,600 pounds of red snapper, in addition to more than 2,000 pounds of red snapper in the ship's main hold.
The legal limit for red snapper is 2,000 pounds a trip.
Many of the fish were under the legal size, according to an affidavit filed last year by NOAA Special Agent Richard Cook.
The ship's captain, Hoang Nguyen, and crewmember Tam Van Le had both pleaded guilty to charges of concealing the import of illegal goods. Their punishment hearings were Friday morning in Galveston's federal courthouse.
Defense attorneys for both men labeled the crimes as largely victimless - "except for the little fishies," as Judge Kent noted.
However, the judge said that overfishing created other victims - consumers, as well as commercial and recreational fishermen who would not catch those fish "because they were already dead."
Kent also said the hidden hold and the network the men had set up to sell their illegal catches showed that theirs had been a well-planned scheme to flout federal limits.
"This isn't a couple of stupid guys who found something floating in the ocean and said, 'Ooh, let's take it to the pawn shop,'" he said
Nguyen received a term of 30 months in prison, while Le received 21 months.
Georgiann Cerese, a Washington D.C.-based prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice's environment and natural resources division, tried both cases.
After the sentences, she said the federal and state agents' thoroughness made the outcome inevitable.
Both men are legal immigrants from Southeast Asia.
"I have always been a supporter of immigration," Judge Kent said during Le's sentencing. "I firmly believe that Lazarus' poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty has meaning. However, my empathy with immigration ends abruptly at the feet of someone who comes here to commit a crime."
Kent concluded his remarks to Le with the judge's hope that the sentences would send a message that "this type of poaching is absolutely unacceptable."
By Scott E. Williams
The Daily News Published July 22, 2006
GALVESTON - U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent gave maximum sentences Friday to two men on a commercial fishing boat whose red snapper catch violated several environmental laws.
When the fishing vessel Thanh Tam returned to its dock in Port Bolivar on March 1, 2005, federal and state agents were waiting.
Agents of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found a hidden compartment in the boat.
Inside the compartment were more than 5,600 pounds of red snapper, in addition to more than 2,000 pounds of red snapper in the ship's main hold.
The legal limit for red snapper is 2,000 pounds a trip.
Many of the fish were under the legal size, according to an affidavit filed last year by NOAA Special Agent Richard Cook.
The ship's captain, Hoang Nguyen, and crewmember Tam Van Le had both pleaded guilty to charges of concealing the import of illegal goods. Their punishment hearings were Friday morning in Galveston's federal courthouse.
Defense attorneys for both men labeled the crimes as largely victimless - "except for the little fishies," as Judge Kent noted.
However, the judge said that overfishing created other victims - consumers, as well as commercial and recreational fishermen who would not catch those fish "because they were already dead."
Kent also said the hidden hold and the network the men had set up to sell their illegal catches showed that theirs had been a well-planned scheme to flout federal limits.
"This isn't a couple of stupid guys who found something floating in the ocean and said, 'Ooh, let's take it to the pawn shop,'" he said
Nguyen received a term of 30 months in prison, while Le received 21 months.
Georgiann Cerese, a Washington D.C.-based prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice's environment and natural resources division, tried both cases.
After the sentences, she said the federal and state agents' thoroughness made the outcome inevitable.
Both men are legal immigrants from Southeast Asia.
"I have always been a supporter of immigration," Judge Kent said during Le's sentencing. "I firmly believe that Lazarus' poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty has meaning. However, my empathy with immigration ends abruptly at the feet of someone who comes here to commit a crime."
Kent concluded his remarks to Le with the judge's hope that the sentences would send a message that "this type of poaching is absolutely unacceptable."
