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• No. 3:22-CR-01754 (Western District of Texas)
• ECS Senior Litigation Counsel Todd Gleason
• ECS Senior Trial Attorney Gary Donner
• ECS Paralegal Chloe Harris

On February 7, 2025, a jury convicted Jason Lee Wagner of conspiracy and 12 smuggling violations (18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 545, 2). Sentencing is scheduled for June 25, 2025.

Between March 2015 and December 2019, Wagner and others bought and sold endangered reptiles from individuals in Mexico. Wagner and other co-conspirator suppliers and middlemen used social media to offer reptiles for sale and to negotiate the terms of the sale and delivery with customers in the United States and Mexico. His co-conspirators also used international money transfers to provide for “crossing fees,” sales and purchases, and other expenses. They then packaged and re-packaged the reptiles for illegal crossings using USPS and other courier services to transport them between Mexico and the United States.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement conducted the investigation.

Reptiles rescued by wildlife agents in the Wagner case

• No. 1:25-CR-00048 (Middle District of Pennsylvania)
• ECS Trial Attorney Ron Sarachan
• AUSA David Williams
• RCEC Patricia Miller

On February 19, 2025, a grand jury indicted Roy Ladell Weaver and his company, Pro Diesel Werks, LLC, with conspiring to impede the lawful functions of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and to violate the Clean Air Act (CAA), and substantive CAA violations (18 U.S.C. § 371; 42 U.S.C. § 7413(c)(2)(C)).

Pro Diesel Werks provided vehicle repair and maintenance and performance enhancement services, including services on diesel engines and vehicle emission systems. The indictment alleges that between 2013 and March 2024, Weaver and the company, along with co-conspirators, disabled the hardware emissions control systems on the diesel vehicles of Pro Diesel Werks’ customers (a practice referred to as a “delete” or “deleting”), defeating the systems’ ability to reduce pollutant gases and particulate matter released to the atmosphere. The defendants are also alleged to have tampered with the monitoring device and method required under the CAA, that is they disabled the onboard diagnostic system on vehicles preventing the system software from monitoring the emission control system hardware deletes (a practice referred to as a “tune” or “tuning”).

The defendants charged customers between approximately $2,000 and $4,000 per vehicle to remove and disable the emission control systems on motor vehicles with diesel engines.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation. 

• No. 3:24-CR-00047 (District of Alaska)
• AUSA Seth Brickey

On February 7, 2025, Corey Potter pleaded guilty to violating the Lacey Act for illegally transporting crab from Alaska (16 U.S.C. §§ 3372(a)(2)(A), 3373(d)(1)(B)). Sentencing is scheduled for May 13, 2025. Kyle Potter, his son, was previously sentenced to pay a $20,000 fine and complete a five-year term of probation. A third defendant, Justin Welch, was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and complete a three-year term of probation.

Corey Potter owns two crab catching vessels; Kyle Potter and Welch worked as vessel captains. In February and March 2024, the vessels harvested more than 7,000 pounds of Tanner and Golden king crab in Southeast Alaska. Corey Potter directed Welch and Kyle Potter to land the crab to Seattle, Washington, where they intended to sell it at a higher price than they would have in Alaska. Neither captain landed the harvested crab at a port in Alaska, and they never recorded the harvest on a fish ticket, as required under state law.

A large portion of the king crab that arrived in Seattle from Alaska had died and was unmarketable. Corey Potter knew that some of the crab aboard was infected with Bitter Crab Syndrome (BCS), a parasitic disease fatal to crustaceans. Officials were forced to destroy more than 4,000 additional pounds of Tanner crab due to the risk of BCS infection. If the defendants had properly landed the crab in Alaska, authorities could have inspected the harvest and removed the infected crab before leaving Alaska.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Law Enforcement conducted the investigation.

• No. 5:25-CR-00002 (Eastern District of Kentucky)
• AUSA Emily Greenfield

On February 7, 2025, Kendall Glenn Hacker pleaded guilty to conspiracy and to violating the Animal Crush statute (18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 48(a)(2), (a)(3)).

Between November 2021 and June 2022, Hacker sent money through online payment applications, such as PayPal and Venmo, to Michael Macartney, an online chat group administrator. The members and participants of these groups funded, created, obtained, received, exchanged and/or distributed animal crush videos.

Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation.

• No. 3:24-CR-00430 (District of Oregon)
• AUSA Bryan Chinwuba
• RCEC Karla Perrin

On February 7, 2025, property management company Horseshoe Grove, LLC, pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Air Act (CAA) National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for asbestos work practice standards (42 U.S.C. §§ 7412(h),7413(c)(1)).  Horseshoe Grove’s owner and operator Ryan Richter pleaded guilty to a CAA negligent endangerment violation (42 U.S.C. § 7413(c)(4)). Construction and demolition company Chamness Dirt Works, Inc., pleaded guilty to violating the CAA NESHAP for asbestos, and company owner and president, Ronald Chamness, pleaded guilty to a CAA negligent endangerment violation (42 U.S.C. § 7413(c)(4)). Sentencing is scheduled for April 3, 2025.

In November 2022, Horseshoe Grove acquired a property in The Dalles, Oregon, which included a mobile home park and two dilapidated apartment buildings. The previous owner provided the new buyers with an asbestos survey from December 2021, which identified more than 5,000 square feet of friable chrysotile asbestos within the two deteriorating buildings, with levels ranging from 2% to 25%. The survey also noted non-friable asbestos in various building materials, including siding and flooring, throughout the apartments. Despite these findings, Horseshoe Grove failed to implement the necessary precautions for asbestos removal.

In March 2023, Chamness Dirt Works began demolishing the two asbestos-laden structures without following proper removal procedures. Chamness did not engage a certified asbestos abatement contractor, did not wet the asbestos-containing debris, and dumped the material in a regular landfill.

Horseshoe Grove paid Chamness Dirt Works a total of $49,330 for the demolition, which did not meet the required safety standards.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation.

• Nos. 4:25-CR-00018, 4:24-CR-00006, 00084 (District of Montana)
• ECS Senior Trial Attorney Patrick Duggan
• ECS Trial Attorney Sarah Brown
• AUSA Jeff Starnes
• ECS Paralegal Tonia Sibblies

On February 10, 2025, Hollis G. Hale pleaded guilty to violating the Lacey Act and the Endangered Species Act (16 U.S.C. §§ 1538(a)(1)(G), 3372(d)(2), 3373(d)(3)(B)). Sentencing is scheduled for June 11, 2025.

Hale conspired with Jack Schubarth to  create giant hybrid sheep for captive hunting. Schubarth smuggled Marco Polo argali sheep parts from Kyrgyzstan into the United States. This protected species of sheep, native to high elevations in the Pamir region of Central Asia, is deemed the largest in the world.

In 2013, Schubarth provided genetic material to a third-party cloning facility, and, in 2016, received successfully cloned pure Marco Polo argali embryos. Schubarth raised a pure male argali clone that he named “Montana Mountain King.” In 2018, Schubarth began breeding Montana Mountain King with other species and selling the offspring throughout the U.S. To evade detection, Schubarth falsely labeled the offspring on Certificates of Veterinary Inspection and other official forms.

In June and July 2020, Hale facilitated the purchase and interstate transport of twelve hybrid Marco Polo argali sheep from Schubarth and falsely identified 43 species of sheep on a Certificate of Veterinary Inspection. Hale falsified these documents knowing these sheep are prohibited in Montana. Schubarth was sentenced in September 2024 to six months’ incarceration, followed by three years’ supervised release.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks conducted the investigation.

• No. 5:25-CR-00011 (Northern District of Florida)
• ECS Senior Trial Attorney Patrick Duggan
• AUSA Joseph Ravelo

On February 12, 2025, Zachary Brandon Barfield pleaded guilty to three counts of poisoning and shooting dolphins in violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (16 U.S.C. §§ 1372(a)(2)(A), 1375(b); 7 U.S.C. §§ 136j(a)(2)(G), 136l(b)(2)).  Sentencing is scheduled for May 21, 2025.

Barfield is a charter and commercial fishing captain operating out of Panama City, Florida. In the summer of 2022, Barfield became frustrated with dolphins eating red snapper from the lines of charter fishing clients. Between June and August 2022, Barfield and others placed a commercial methomyl insecticide inside bait fish to feed to and poison the dolphins that surfaced near his boat.

While captaining another fishing trip in December 2022, Barfield saw dolphins eating snapper from fishing lines. This time, he used a 12-gauge shotgun to shoot and kill a dolphin that surfaced near his vessel. In the summer of 2023, while on a charter fishing trip, Barfield used the same shotgun to shoot a dolphin that surfaced near the lines of clients.

The National Marine Fisheries Service Office of Law Enforcement conducted the investigation with assistance from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

• No. 23-CR-00015 (Western District of Virginia)
• AUSA Michael Baudinet

On February 21, 2025, James Howard Spencer, the Mayor of Glen Lyn, Virginia, pleaded guilty to a felony violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA) (33 U.S.C. § 1319(c)(2)(A)). Spencer admitted to directing employees of the Town of Glen Lyn to illegally discharge raw sewage and other pollutants into the East River, a tributary of the New River, on three occasions- in the summer of 2019, December 2020, and June 2021.

The discharges occurred at a pump station located behind the Glen Lyn Post Office, which was not an authorized discharge point of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for the Glen Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. The East River, a perennial stream and a tributary of the New River, is a protected waterway under the CWA.

Spencer knowingly violated multiple conditions of the NPDES permit, including discharges from unauthorized locations and failing to report the discharges to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigation Division and the Virginia State Police conducted the investigation.

• No. 1:25-CR-20007 (Southern District of Florida)
• AUSA Tom Watts-FitzGerald

Hash was the owner and operator of the S/V Juliet, a sailing vessel used for multi-day scuba diving trips between Miami and the Bahamas. Over the course of approximately six years, Hash’s vessel carried up to 12 passengers per trip, along with the crew, between the U.S. and the Bahamas.

On June 16, 2023, U.S. Coast Guard investigators boarded the Juliet following its return from the Bahamas. After noticing an active oil sheen originating from the vessel, they conducted a safety examination.

During the inspection, they noted oily water in the bilge, and a pump connected to the vessel’s grey water tank, to facilitate illegal overboard discharges. Hash had used the vessel’s grey water tank (which is intended to hold liquid waste from the boat’s washer, dryer, sinks, and showers) to store oil-contaminated bilge water and discharge overboard.

Investigators estimate that Hash discharged approximately 26,000 gallons of oily water during the five-year period.

The United States Coast Guard conducted the investigation. 

• No. 1:25-CR-00002 (District of New Hampshire)
• ECS Trial Attorney Ron Sarachan
• AUSA Matthew Hunter
• ECS Paralegal Tonia Sibblies

On February 24, 2025, The Old Dutch Mustard Company, d/b/a Pilgrim Foods Company (Old Dutch), and company owner and president Charles Santich, pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. §§ 1311(a), 1319(c)(2)(A)).

Old Dutch manufactured vinegar and mustard products, generating acidic wastewater during the process. Much of this wastewater consisted of spilled or leaked vinegar, or discarded vinegar that did not meet specifications. Old Dutch did not have a permit to discharge process wastewater. Instead, it stored the process wastewater in tanks and a trucking company hauled one or two truckloads of the wastewater off-site daily to the Rochester Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW). Old Dutch paid the trucking company for transporting each load. A second wastewater stream consisted of stormwater that became acidic after flowing through areas of the facility (especially the tank farm) where vinegar spilled. Old Dutch also paid the trucking company to haul the acidic stormwater to the POTW.

Santich decided to reduce costs by ordering workers to discharge some of the wastewater to a manmade ditch formed by an abandoned railroad bed at the top of a hill behind the facility, from which the wastewater would flow into the Souhegan River. In May 2017, Santich hired an excavation company to extend an underground pipe to the top of the hill behind the facility. He then directed an employee to repeatedly pump wastewater through the underground pipe to the abandoned railroad bed. Once the process wastewater or contaminated stormwater discharged at the top of the hill, it flowed to the river. Old Dutch did not have an NPDES or any other permit to discharge pollutants into the river.

In March 2021, Santich directed the same excavation company to install a sump at the corner of the tank farm area to collect the acidic stormwater and pump it directly up the hill through the buried pipe. Similarly, during the Fall of 2022, Santich hired the excavation company to clean out the undergrowth in the manmade ditch at the top of the hill and line it with riprap to create a better drainage ditch and facilitate the flow of wastewater to the river.

On August 2, 2023, EPA agents executed a search warrant at the Old Dutch facility and witnessed this illegal activity. Agents observed liquid that smelled like vinegar discharging from the end of the underground pipe into the riprap-lined ditch. The wastewater discharge had a pH of 3.6. The agents then conducted a dye test starting at the sump outside the corner of the tank farm area. The dye discharged from the underground pipe at the top of the hill and flowed along the riprap-lined drainage ditch and down to the river.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation, with assistance from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.

• No. 3:24-CR-00383 (Southern District of California)
• ECS Assistant Chief Stephen DaPonte
• Former AUSA Melanie Pierson
• AUSA Mark Pletcher

On February 3, 2025, a court sentenced Michael Hart to time served followed by one year of supervised release. Hart also will pay $1,500 in restitution. Hart pleaded guilty to conspiring to illegally import hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) into the United States from Mexico and sell them in violation of law (18 U.S.C. § 371). In addition, Hart admitted to conspiring to illegally import hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), namely HCFC 22, which is banned under the Clean Air Act.

Between June and December 2022, Hart purchased refrigerants in Mexico and smuggled them into the United States in his vehicle, concealed under a tarp and tools. Hart posted the refrigerants for sale on OfferUp, Facebook Marketplace, and other sites, and sold them for a profit.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division, Homeland Security Investigations, and Customs and Border Protection conducted the investigation.

• No. 3:24-CR-01552 (Southern District of California)
• ECS Assistant Chief Stephen DaPonte

On February 6, 2025, a court sentenced Thalia Zambrano to time served, after she pleaded guilty to conspiracy (18 U.S.C. § 371).

On June 28, 2024, authorities apprehended Zambrano when she drove into the United States at the San Ysidro Port of Entry with 18 bottles of undeclared “Taktic” (Amitraz) concealed beneath a blanket on the back seat her car. Regulators in the United States canceled this pesticide due to the high concentration of amitraz.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division, Homeland Security Investigations, and Customs and Border Protection conducted the investigation.

• No. 2:24-CR-00104 (Eastern District of California)
• AUSA Kathryn Lydon

On February 10, 2025, a court sentenced Andrew Laughlin to pay a $5,000 fine, complete a two-year term of probation, and pay $4,209 in restitution into the Lacey Act Reward Fund. Laughlin pleaded guilty to one count of smuggling reptiles into the United States (18 U.S.C. § 545).

In 2017, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents identified Laughlin as part of a nationwide investigation into the smuggling of turtles from the United States to an individual in Hong Kong (Individual A). Individual A met and maintained contact with certain wildlife-smuggling associates via Facebook. Investigators identified Laughlin as a suspect in the wildlife smuggling ring from Individual A’s Facebook contacts and communications with covert agents. In addition to corresponding on Facebook, Laughlin also sent text messages to Individual A and co-conspirators.

Between March and April 2018, Laughlin acted as a “middleman” in an international amphibian smuggling ring. During a conversation with an undercover agent, Laughlin said that he participated in the ring in order to acquire hard-to-find newts. He shipped or received at least four packages of amphibians, including packages to or from individuals located in Hong Kong and Sweden. The packages were falsely labeled as items including a “toy car,” “rubber toys,” or “a ceramic art piece.” The boxes actually contained live animals, including eastern box turtles, spotted turtles, and a variety of newt species.

A search warrant executed at the defendant’s residence uncovered 80 live newts of various species. Some of them tested positive for a virulent fungus which originated in Asia and has spread throughout the illegal pet trade. The restitution covered expenses incurred to store and test the animals.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement conducted the investigation. 

Photo of newts seized from Laughlin’s residence; photo included in case press release at time of guilty plea

• Nos. 1:22-CR-00131, 00132 (Eastern District of California)
• AUSA Karen Escobar

On February 10, 2025, a court sentenced Jose Angel Beltran-Chaidez to 24 months incarceration, followed by two years of supervised release. Beltran-Chaidez pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute heroin in this multi-defendant case involving drugs and animal welfare violations (21 U.S.C. §§ 841 (a)(1), (b)(1)(A)).

Between March and April 2021, Jorge Calderon-Campos (who calls himself “Americano”) supplied 26 pounds of methamphetamine to co-defendants Mark Garcia and Alberto Gomez-Santiago, and an additional 60 pounds to Francisco Javier Torres Mora. Between January and April 2022, Calderon-Campos also possessed roosters he used to participate in an animal fighting venture.

During a search of his residence on April 26, 2022, law enforcement officers found numerous hens and roosters, various cockfighting implements (including razors and spurs) and six cockfighting trophies, including several with plates inscribed with “Team Amkno” (shorthand for “Team Americano”). At Calderon-Campos’s “stash house,” law enforcement officers found 14 hens and 77 roosters, cockfighting leashes, a cockfighting trophy, and a variety of syringes and pill bottles containing substances related to cockfighting supplements.

Jorge Calderon-Campos was sentenced in November 2024 to eight years and one month of incarceration. Calderon-Campos pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and heroin and to violating the Animal Welfare Act (21 U.S.C. §§ 841 (a)(1), (b)(1)(A)); 7 U.S.C. § 2156(b); 18 U.S.C. § 49(a)).

On August 26, 2024, a court sentenced Antonio Beltran-Chaidez to 46 months’ incarceration, followed by 24 months’ supervised release, after he pleaded guilty to possessing heroin with the intent to distribute (21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1)).

In January 2024, co-defendant Gomez-Santiago was sentenced to four years and nine months incarceration, followed by 60 months supervised release. Mora was sentenced to four years and nine months incarceration. Horacio Ortega-Martinez, another associate of Calderon-Campos, was sentenced in April 2023 to 18 months incarceration, followed by 36 months supervised release, after pleading guilty to possessing gamecocks for an animal fighting venture (7 U.S.C § 2156 (b)).

Co-defendant Garcia pleaded guilty and was sentenced on March 3, 2025, to 24 months’ incarceration, followed by two years of supervised release. Byron Adilio Alfaro-Sandoval is scheduled for status conference June 18, 2025.

Homeland Security Investigations and the Drug Enforcement Administration conducted the investigation, with assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Secret Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Kern County High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force, the California Highway Patrol, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the Kern County Sheriff’s Office, the Kern County Probation Department, and the Bakersfield Police Department.

• No. 4:21-CR-00532 (Eastern District of Missouri)
• AUSA Gwendolyn Carroll
• AUSA Kyle Bateman

On February 11, 2025, a court sentenced Christopher Lee Carroll to serve nine years of incarceration and to pay $3 million in restitution. A jury convicted Carroll in August 2024 of three counts of bank fraud, three counts of making false statements to a financial institution, one count of conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act (CAA), 13 violations of the CAA, and two counts of threatening a witness (18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 2, 1014, 1512 (b)(3), 1344; 42 U.S.C. § 7413(c)(2)(C)).

Carroll and his business partner, George Reed, owned a time share exit company called Square One Group LLC. In April of 2020, they submitted a false and fraudulent application for a $1.2 million Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan. The loan application falsely stated that the spouses of Reed and Carroll owned the company to conceal Carroll’s status as a paroled felon, which would have precluded his company from receiving PPP funds. Carroll also used his wife’s name to avoid any potential liability for the fraud.

The PPP loan was supposed to help save businesses and jobs, but Carroll did not use the money to pay dozens of employees who were out of work or keep paying for health insurance for 17 of those employees. Instead, he used it to start a trucking company, Whiskey Dix Big Truck Repair LLC. Carroll and Reed then applied for loan forgiveness, falsely claiming that they’d spent the money on payroll and other permitted expenses. Additionally, Reed and Carroll later sought a second loan of more than $1.6 million, taking a total of $660,000 in “owner draws” from the company after the loan was approved.

From May 2020 through December 2021, Carroll and Whiskey Dix violated the CAA by unlawfully removing the emissions control systems from more than 30 diesel-fueled trucks. In January 2022, Carroll tried to pressure two employees to take responsibility for the emissions tampering. When one of the employees said he was going to talk to federal investigators, Carroll threatened to stop paying for the employee’s attorney.

The court sentenced Whiskey Dix to complete a three-year term of probation after the jury convicted the company on 16 CAA violations. Reed pleaded guilty to bank fraud in September of 2022 and was sentenced January 23, 2025, to time served, and five years of supervised release. Reed was held jointly liable for $3 million in restitution.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation.

• No. 2:24-CR-00088 (Eastern District of Virginia)
• AUSA Elizabeth Yusi

On February 13, 2025, a court sentenced Jeffrey Radtke to 21 months’ incarceration, followed by three years of supervised release. Radtke pleaded guilty to conspiracy to create and distribute animal crush videos (18 U.S.C.§§ 371, 48(a)(2), (a)(3)).

Between June 2021 and August 2022, Radtke sent more than 40 payments (ranging from $1 through $300) he received from co-conspirators to pay videographers in Indonesia and other locations outside of the United States to create videos depicting the torture and deaths of juvenile macaque monkeys.

During the execution of a search warrant in April 2023, law enforcement found more than 2,600 videos and 2,700 images depicting animal crushing on Radtke’s computer.

Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation.

• No. 3:24-CR-05072 (Western District of Washington)
• AUSA Seth Wilkinson
• AUSA Lauren Staniar
• SAUSA Karla Perrin

On February 14, 2025, a court sentenced Jonathan Achtemeier to pay a $25,000 fine and serve four months’ incarceration, followed by one year of supervised release. Achtemeier pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act (CAA) for his role in tampering with required monitoring devices on diesel trucks (18 U.S.C. § 371).

Between 2019 and 2022, Achtemeier modified the software on hundreds of trucks nationwide to prevent the monitoring devices from detecting the removal of emissions controls. Achtemeier conspired with mechanics and truck fleet operators, instructing them on how to remove or disable anti-pollution hardware on diesel trucks, a process known as “deleting.” Achtemeier tampered with the monitoring device on his clients’ trucks by connecting laptops to the trucks’ onboard computers and remotely “tuning” the vehicles’ computers, which rendered required monitoring devices inaccurate. This allowed the trucks to run without functioning emissions control systems and resulted in the trucks emitting significantly more pollution than legally allowed.

Achtemeier charged as much at $4,500 per truck for work that often took him two hours or less. He advertised his services on social media nationwide, doing business as Voided Warranty Tuning or Optimized Ag. Between 2019 and 2022 his company took in more than $4.3 million in gross profits.

The Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation.

• No. 5:24-CR-01264 (Southern District of Texas)
• AUSA Tory Sailer
• Assistance from ECS Senior Counsel Elinor Colbourn

On February 18, 2025, a court sentenced Andres Alejandro Sanchez to complete a three-year term of probation to include six months’ home detention. Sanchez pleaded guilty to violating the Lacey Act for illegally importing a spider monkey into the United States (16 U.S.C. §§ 3372(a)(1), 3373(d)(2)).

On October 7, 2024, Sanchez travelled from Mexico to Laredo, Texas, and failed to declare a spider monkey he had in his vehicle to Customs and Border Protection officers as he attempted to cross the border.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security Investigations, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement conducted the investigation. 

Case photo of baby spider monkey rescued by authorities

• No. 8:23-CR-00222 (Middle District of Florida)
• ECS Senior Trial Attorney Matt Morris
• AUSA Erin Favorit
• ECS Paralegal Jonah Fruchtman

On February 18, 2025, a court sentenced Jose Carrillo to 84 months’ incarceration, followed by three years of supervised release. Carrillo pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the Animal Welfare Act and knowingly possessing a firearm after a felony conviction (18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 922(g)(1) and 924(d)).

On June 7, 2023, authorities executed a search warrant at Carrillo’s residence, seizing a total of 10 pit bull-type dogs. Several of the dogs exhibited scarring consistent with dogfighting. Authorities also discovered a .22 caliber rifle, a bloodstained wooden dogfighting “pit,” syringes, veterinary medications, a skin stapler, break sticks used to separate fighting dogs, and other suspected dogfighting paraphernalia.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General conducted the investigation with assistance from the following agencies: Homeland Security Investigations; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Marshal Service; and the Pasco County (Florida) Sheriff’s Office.

Photo of dogs from Carillo’s home included in press release, link below.

• Nos. 2:23-CR-00600, 2:24-CR-00890 (District of Arizona)
• AUSA Glenn McCormick

On February 18, 2025, a court sentenced Eric T. Scionti to 47 months’ incarceration, followed by three years of supervised release. Scionti pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon and Animal Crushing in two separate cases (18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1), 924(a)(8), 48(a)(1)).

In December 2022, federal authorities received an anonymous tip that Scionti, a convicted felon, possessed a number of handguns, as well as grenades and bullet-proof body armor. On January 18, 2023, agents executed a search warrant, seizing six firearms and 1,826 rounds of ammunition from areas of a residence controlled by the defendant. Scionti has multiple Arizona state felony convictions and was prohibited by federal law from possessing firearms or ammunition.

While researching the defendant’s online activities, agents found video evidence depicting Scionti torturing pigeons. Agents executed a subsequent search warrant on September 29, 2023, for records and information associated with Scionti’s email account. During that search, agents seized approximately 168 videos and 89 digital photographs depicting Scionti torturing and mutilating live pigeons.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted the investigations in these cases.

• No. 8:22-CR-00330 (Middle District of Florida)
• AUSA Jay Hoffer
• ECS Senior Trial Attorney Banumathi Rangarajan
• ECS Law Clerk Maria Wallace

On February 19, 2025, a court sentenced Manuel Domingos Pita to 48 months’ incarceration and to pay more than $55 million in restitution. Also, Pita will forfeit real estate and cash/bank accounts. Pita pleaded guilty to a wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and a willful violation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Act for causing the death of an employee (18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 1343; 29 U.S.C. § 666(e)).

Pita failed to disclose the number of workers he had.  Had he properly disclosed the number of workers, he would have paid an additional $22.7 million+ in premiums. Additionally, Pita failed to pay to the IRS over $33.7 million in federal employment taxes on those workers’ wages.

Between February and July 2019, investigators with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued six citations to Domingos 54 for failure to provide fall protection to workers. Even after being cited for these violations, Pita continued to ignore OSHA requirements. In March 2020, Pita assigned a worker and three other carpenters to install sheeting on the roof of a residential home in windy conditions without providing the required fall-protection gear or ensuring its use. As a result, one of the workers was blown off the roof and died from his injuries.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, Florida Department of Financial Services’ Bureau of Insurance Fraud-Criminal Investigations, and the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General conducted the investigation.

• Nos. 3:24-CR-00101, 00116 (Northern District of Florida)
• ECS Deputy Chief Joe Poux
• ECS Paralegal Jonah Fruchtman

On February 20, 2025, a court sentenced Fernando Cruz Rubio to time served. Rubio pleaded guilty to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) for failing to maintain an oil record book (ORB) (33 U.S.C. § 1908(a)).

Rubio worked as a chief engineer on the M/V Suhar, a Panamanian-flagged ocean-going bulk carrier that routinely hauled cement from Tampico, Mexico, to Pensacola, Florida. The ship was managed by Gremex Shipping S.A. de C.V., which was responsible for the ship’s day-to-day operations, including hiring all crew, and ensuring compliance with all environmental and international regulations.

The Coast Guard inspected the ship when it arrived in Pensacola on August 25, 2023. Inspectors determined that the vessel’s crew regularly discharged untreated oily bilge water overboard, bypassing onboard pollution control equipment, and falsified the ship’s ORB to conceal these discharges. On various trips, between March 2021 through August 25, 2023, Rubio, as the Suhar’s chief engineer, failed to accurately maintain the ORB and did not record overboard bilge water discharges.

Gremex was sentenced in October 2024 to pay a $1.75 million fine, serve a four-year term of probation, and implement an environmental compliance plan. The shipping corporation also pleaded guilty to violating APPS.

The U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service conducted the investigation.

• No. 3:24-CR-00344 (District of Oregon)
• AUSA Andrew Ho
• RCEC Gwendolyn Russell

On February 25, 2025, a court sentenced to Clancy Logistics, Inc., and owner Timothy C. Clancy, to each complete three-year terms of probation. They were also ordered to pay a fine of $101,510.00, jointly and severally. The defendants pleaded guilty to a felony count of tampering with a Clean Air Act monitoring device (42 U.S.C. § 7413(c)(2)(C)).

Between October 2019 and July 2023, Timothy C. Clancy tampered with the onboard diagnostic systems (OBDs) and caused others to tamper with the OBDs, of at least 13 Class 8 diesel semi-trailer trucks owned or operated by his companies, Clancy Transport, Inc., and Clancy Logistics, Inc. The defendants’ actions prevented the OBDs from detecting malfunctions caused by the deletion of the vehicles’ emission control systems, in violation of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. § 7413(c)(2)(C)).

As part of this process, Clancy directed his employees to disable and remove the emissions hardware from his companies’ vehicles. This involved removing exhaust systems and their corresponding emissions control components from the vehicles, hollowing out the functioning portion of the devices so that only the casing remained, and re-installing the casing to create the appearance that the emissions controls were intact. The vehicles’ OBDs were then tuned so that they could no longer detect the removal of the control equipment.

Clancy and his companies tampered with the OBDs on their diesel semi-trailer trucks so that they could operate the vehicles with real or perceived increased performance and fuel efficiency and reduce or eliminate the cost and burden associated with maintaining the vehicles. As a result, a greater volume of pollutants was emitted from the vehicles.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation.

• No. 5:24-CR-00028 (Western District of North Carolina)
• AUSA Katherine T. Armstrong

On February 27, 2025, a court sentenced Robert G. Gambill to pay a $9,500 fine and to forfeit a rifle, scope, and ammunition for killing a bald eagle in violation of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (16 U.S.C. § 668(a)). As required under provisions of the Act, $2,500 of the fine will be apportioned equally between two witnesses who reported the shooting.

On June 5, 2024, Gambill set his firearm on a fencepost and targeted, shot, and killed a bald eagle that was perched in a tree near a bridge in Sparta, North Carolina. After killing the eagle, Gambill drove away from the scene, abandoning the carcass on the bank of the New River. Two witnesses recovered the carcass and turned it over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The U.S. FWS forensic laboratory determined that injuries suffered by the bald eagle were consistent with a gunshot wound from a high-powered rifle.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement conducted the investigation, with assistance from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and the Alleghany County Sheriff’s Office.

• No. 1:24-CR-00005 (Middle District of Georgia)
• ECS Senior Trial Attorney Ethan Eddy
• ECS Trial Attorney Leigh Rende
• AUSA Leah McEwen
• ECS Law Clerk Amanda Backer

On February 28, 2025, a court sentenced Willie Russell to 24 months’ incarceration, followed by three years’ supervised release, after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and exhibiting dogs in an animal fighting venture (7 U.S.C. § 2156(a)(1); 18 U.S.C. § 371). Russell is the fourteenth and final defendant to plead guilty in this federal dog fighting case. The other co-defendants are: Tamichael Elijah; Marvin Pulley, III; Brandon Baker; Christopher Travis Beaumont; Herman Buggs, Jr.; Terrance Davis; Timothy Freeman; Terelle Ganzy; Gary Hopkins; Cornelious Johnson; Rodrecus Kimble; Donnametric Miller; Willie Russell; and, Fredricus White.

On April 24, 2022, the defendants converged on a property in Donalsonville, Georgia, where they held a large-scale dog fighting event. They brought a total of 24 pit bull-type dogs to fight in a series of matches over that weekend. Law enforcement personnel who disrupted the event found numerous dogs inside crates in cars on the property.

The participants used their cars to store dogs who had already fought, as well as those awaiting their turn in the fighting pit. Some dogs were kept on chains on the property. Law enforcement rescued a total of 27 dogs, including a badly injured dog that later perished from its injuries. Dogs in the cars also bore recent injuries and scars.

All defendants but Freeman pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy to violate the animal fighting prohibition of the federal Animal Welfare Act. Defendants Beaumont and Miller also pleaded guilty to sponsoring or exhibiting (i.e., handling) a dog in a dog fight. Defendants Baker, Davis, Ganzy, Johnson, Pulley, and White further pleaded guilty to possessing and transporting a dog for purposes of using the dog in an animal fighting venture. Freeman pleaded guilty to spectating at an animal fight. Defendants Miller and Pulley also pleaded guilty to unlawfully possession of a firearm by a person with a prior felony conviction.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of the Inspector General; and the Seminole County, Georgia, Sheriff’s Office conducted the investigation, with assistance from the Bay County, Florda, Sheriff’s Office.

• No. 1:25-CR-00100 (Middle District of Pennsylvania)
• ECS Senior Trial Attorneys RJ Powers and Ron Sarachan
• AUSA David Williams

On April 4, 2025, prosecutors filed an information charging Ryan Spencer with conspiring to impede the lawful functions of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and to violate the Clean Air Act (CAA), as well as substantive CAA violations (18 U.S.C. § 371; 42 U.S.C. § 7413(c)(2)(C)).

Between 2013 and March 2024, Spencer, a Service Manager at Pro Diesel Werks, LLC, along with Pro Diesel Werks owner Roy Ladell Weaver and others, disabled the hardware emissions control systems on the diesel vehicles of Pro Diesel Werks’ customers (a practice referred to as a “delete” or “deleting”), defeating the systems’ ability to reduce pollutant gases and particulate matter emitted into the atmosphere. The information further alleges that Spencer and his co-conspirators also tampered with the emissions diagnostic systems on the vehicles to prevent the diagnostic system software from monitoring the emission control system hardware deletes (a practice referred to as a “tune” or “tuning”).

On February 19, 2025, a grand jury indicted Weaver and Pro Diesel Werks on similar charges.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation.

• No. 2:25-mj-00175 (Western District of Washington)
• AUSA Celia Ann Lee

On April 7, 2025, a court unsealed a complaint charging Joel David Ridley, a member of the Lummi Nation, with violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and for illegally possessing a firearm (16 U.S.C. § 668(a); 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1)).

According to the complaint, on February 23, 2025, a witness on the Lummi Reservation heard a gunshot while walking his dog. As he walked home, the witness heard a second shot and saw a person pick up an eagle from the ground. As the witness was on the phone with police, he saw another eagle fall from a tree on his property. The eagle was badly injured. Police captured the surviving eagle and later transported it to the Humane Society.

Shortly after meeting with the witness, police encountered an SUV in the area that matched the description provided by the reporting party.  A records check revealed the vehicle belonged to Ridley. When police responded to the residence, they observed a dead eagle in the back seat of Ridley’s vehicle.

Police obtained a search warrant for Ridley’s vehicle and found a dead eagle and a .22 caliber Savage rifle concealed between the rear seats. Ridely is prohibited from possessing firearms due to a prior conviction.

Both juvenile bald eagles were taken to the Washington State Humane Society and found to have suffered gunshot wounds. The surviving eagle had to be euthanized.

While the Lummi Tribe is permitted to possess, distribute, and transport bald or golden eagles found dead within Indian Country, the permit does not authorize the taking of eagles by gunshot, poison, or trapping.

The Lummi Nation Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted the investigation.

• No. 3:25-mj-01628 (Southern District of California)
• AUSA Emily Allen

On April 8, 2025, prosecutors filed a complaint charging Dumitru Cicai with smuggling twenty-four one-liter bottles of “Taktic” pesticide into the United States (18 U.S.C. § 545).

On March 31, 2025, Cicai drove into the United States at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. Cicai told the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) primary inspection officer that he had nothing to declare. Upon inspecting the vehicle, the primary officer discovered multiple pieces of natural wood branches in the vehicle’s trunk and large bottles concealed in black bags.

When questioned by the secondary CBP officer, Cicai said he only had wood to declare, nothing else. Upon closer inspection, officers found 24 bottles of pesticide labeled “Taktic.”

“Taktic” contains the active ingredient amitraz at an emulsifiable concentration of 12.5 percent. Under U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations, amitraz in this form is a cancelled and unregistered pesticide in the United States.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division and Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation. 

• No. 3:25-CR-00030 (District of Alaska)
• AUSA Ainsley McNerney
• RCEC Karla Perrin

On April 25, 2025, prosecutors filed an information charging Jason Christenson with tampering with a Clean Air Act (CAA) monitoring device and CAA false statements (42 U.S.C. §§ 7413(c)(2)(C), (c)(2)(A)).

Between October 2019 and March 2024, Christenson tampered with monitoring methods required to be maintained under the CAA by altering the emissions control equipment on approximately 170 diesel trucks. Christenson and his business, Elite Diesel Performance, also modified the onboard diagnostic systems of the vehicles to prevent them from detecting the fact that this equipment had been removed.

On May 1, 2021, Christenson submitted a response to a Request for Information sent by the Environmental Protection Agency that contained false statements. Specifically, for the question asking whether he or his business had manufactured, sold, or installed any defeat devices, Christenson responded ‘no.’ In truth, he had installed more than 100 defeat devices on diesel trucks between January 2019 and January 2021.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation.

• No. 5:25-CR-00254 (Southern District of Texas)
• AUSA Torie Sailor

On April 1, 2025, Priscilla Sanchez pleaded guilty to violating the Lacey Act for attempting to import five spider monkeys, a protected species, into the United States from Mexico (16 U.S.C. §§ 3372(a)(2), 3373(d)(1)(A)). Sentencing is scheduled for July 1, 2025.

On January 13, 2025, Sanchez attempted to enter the U.S. at the Port of Entry, near Laredo, Texas, driving an SUV. Customs and Border Protection officers referred her to secondary screening. Officers discovered a duffle bag with five monkeys wearing diapers concealed inside of it. Authorities confirmed they were spider monkeys, which are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Sanchez admitted to keeping monkeys at her house and selling them for between $300 and $500 each. She also knew it was illegal to do so.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, and Customs and Border Protection conducted the investigation.

Case photo of monkeys seized by CBP agents.

• No. 9:25-CR-00164 (District of South Carolina)
• ECS Senior Trial Attorney Ryan Connors
• AUSA Winston Holliday
• AUSA Elle Klein

On April 10, 2025, Lauren DeLoach pleaded guilty to violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act and Lacey Act trafficking for importing and selling sperm whale teeth and bones (16 U.S.C. §§ 1372(a)(4)(B), 3372(a)(1), 3373(b)(1)(B)).

DeLoach operated a home decoration store in St. Helena Island, South Carolina. Between September 2021 and September 2024, he imported sperm whale parts to South Carolina, with at least 30 shipments coming from Australia, Latvia, Norway, and Ukraine. DeLoach instructed suppliers to label the items as “plastic” or “resin” so they would not be seized by U.S. Customs authorities. DeLoach acknowledged selling the teeth and bones from July 2022 through September 2024, in violation of the Lacey Act. He sold at least 85 items on eBay worth more than $18,000, and agents seized approximately $20,000 worth of sperm whale parts from DeLoach’s residence while executing a search warrant.

Laboratory analysis confirmed the teeth and bones belonged to sperm whales, which are a protected species.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration conducted the investigation.

• No. 1:21-CR-00031 (Western District of Pennsylvania)
• AUSA Paul Sellers

On April 21, 2025, Dale A. Smith pleaded guilty to conspiracy and to violating the Lacey Act for illegally purchasing American ginseng (18 U.S.C. § 371; 16 U.S.C. §§ 3372(a)(2)(B), 3373(d)(l)(B)).

As the owner and operator of Alleghany Mountain Ginseng, Smith possessed licenses to deal wild American ginseng in Pennsylvania and New York. Between September 2018 and January 2020, he purchased wild ginseng in Pennsylvania from buyers who informed him that they harvested it from New York without required certifications. Smith then submitted falsified Ginseng Dealer Quarterly Reports stating he purchased legally harvested ginseng from Pennsylvania, when in fact the ginseng came from New York.

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement conducted the investigation.

• No. 3:23-CR-00109 (District of Alaska)
• AUSA Jennifer Ivers
• RCEC Karla Perrin

On April 23, 2025, Brendan Trevors entered into a pretrial diversion agreement, pleading guilty to conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act (18 U.S.C. § 371). The charge will be dismissed in 18 months if Trevors complies with all the conditions in the agreement. This includes paying a $16,000 fine and restoring his vehicle back to original emission control parameters.

Between July 2020 and June 2022, Matanuska Diesel, LLC, company owner Mackenzie Spurlock, and former co-owner Trevors, removed air pollution control equipment and tampered with federally mandated monitoring devices on diesel vehicles. The process of removing emissions control systems and reprogramming a vehicle’s onboard diagnostic system is known as “deleting” and “tuning.” These unlawful modifications result in a significant increase in pollutants emitted by the vehicle. The defendants tampered with approximately nine trucks, charging between $1,200 and $5,000 for those services.

Matanuska and Spurlock are scheduled for trial to begin on October 20, 2025, for conspiring to violate the CAA and multiple substantive CAA violations (18 U.S.C. § 371; 42 U.S.C. § 7413(c)(2)(C)).

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation.

• No. 1:24-CR-00075 (District of Rhode Island)
• ECS Assistant Chief Stephen DaPonte
• ECS Senior Trial Attorney Gary Donner
• AUSA John McAdams

On April 29, 2025, Onill Vasquez Lozada pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing, sponsoring, and exhibiting birds in an animal fighting venture in violation of the Animal Welfare Act (7 U.S.C. § 2156(a)(1), (b), (d); 18 U.S.C. § 49(a)). Sentencing is scheduled for July 29, 2025.

Lozada is one of six defendants charged with violating the Animal Welfare Act in connection with a cockfighting operation. According to the indictment, on March 6, 2022, Miguel Delgado hosted a series of individual cockfights, known as “derbies,” at his Providence home. Delgado is also charged with sponsoring and exhibiting roosters in an animal fighting venture on multiple dates, buying and transporting sharp instruments, or “gaffs,” for use in the cockfights, and unlawfully possessing roosters for use in an animal fighting venture.

Antonio Ledee Rivera and Lozada were charged with unlawfully possessing roosters in April 2021 for use in an animal fighting venture and for sponsoring and exhibiting roosters at a March 2022 derby at Delgado’ s home. Rivera was also charged in connection with an earlier derby at Delgado’ s home.

Germidez Kingsley Jamie, Jose Rivera, and Luis Castillo are charged with sponsoring and exhibiting roosters at an animal fighting venture at the March 2022 derby. Jamie and Jose Rivera are also charged with one count of buying and transporting gaffs for use in an animal fighting venture.

The Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General, the Postal Inspection Service, the Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigation, and the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals conducted the investigation. The following agencies also assisted: the U.S. Marshals Service; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Rhode Island State Police; Massachusetts State Police; Animal Rescue League of Boston’s Law Enforcement Division; and Providence, Woonsocket, and Attleboro, MA, Police Departments.

• No. 5:25-CR-00005 (Northern District of West Virginia)
• ECS Trial Attorney Lauren Steele
• AUSA Max Nogay

On April 30, 2025, Michael Kandis pleaded guilty to a Lacey Act Trafficking offense (16 U.S.C. §§ 3372(a)(2)(A), 3373(d)(2)).

Kandis is a reptile dealer in Wheeling, West Virginia. Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) conservation officers became acquainted with Kandis through a long-term investigation in which they operated in a covert capacity at various reptile shows throughout the Midwest.

During their investigation, the IDNR officers conducted several wildlife transactions involving Kandis. In October 2019, Kandis purchased 47 snakes from undercover officers, 25 of which were bullsnakes, for a total price of $1,415. The sale was conducted in Noblesville, Indiana. Bullsnakes are a native species in Indiana, and it is illegal to sell them under Indiana law. Kandis later transported the snakes from Indiana to West Virginia to sell.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources conducted the investigation.

• No. 2:24-CR-00057 (Eastern District of Washington)
• AUSA Dan Fruchter
• AUSA Jacob Brooks
• RCEC Gwendolyn Brooks

On April 2, 2025, a court sentenced Pavel Ivanovich Turlak, and his Spokane-based trucking companies: PT Express, LLC; Spokane Truck Service, LLC; and Pauls Trans, LLC. They previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to illegally violate Clean Air Act (CAA) emissions controls and to fraudulently obtaining hundreds of thousands of dollars in COVID-19 relief funding (42 U.S.C. § 7413 (c)(2)(C);18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 1343, 287). All defendants will complete five-year terms of probation, with the companies subject to an environmental compliance plan. All defendants are jointly and severally responsible for $317,389 in restitution to the Small Business Administration.

Between August 2017 and November 2023, Turlak purchased illegal “delete tune” packages from Ryan Hugh Milliken and his company, Hardaway Solutions, LLC. They designed this software to disable and defeat emissions controls and monitoring systems required under the CAA. Turlak loaded the delete tunes into the trucks used by his own businesses, as well as trucks of co-conspirators who were customers of Spokane Truck Service, LLC. Milliken created and sold custom software delete tunes to Turlak for vehicles based on specifications Turlak outlined. Turlak then charged as much as $3,500 to diesel truck owners to “delete” and “tune” their vehicles by tampering with their pollution monitoring devices.

In addition to violating the CAA, Turlak fraudulently obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars in COVID-19 relief funding. Between March 2020 and August 2021, Turlak fraudulently applied for and received more than $300,000 in federal funding that was designated to go to eligible small businesses during the pandemic. Turlak and his businesses were not eligible to receive this funding due to their ongoing participation in this criminal conspiracy.

Milliken and Hardaway Solutions pleaded guilty in November 2024 to conspiracy and to violating the CAA (18 U.S.C. § 371; 42 U.S.C. § 7413(c)(2)(C)). They were sentenced in January 2025 to complete five-year terms of probation, during which the company will be responsible for implementing an environmental compliance plan. Both defendants are jointly and severally responsible for paying a $75,000 fine.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation with assistance from the EPA National Enforcement Investigations Center, the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General, and the Spokane Police Department.

• No. 1:23-CR-00405 (Eastern District of New York)
• AUSA Sean M. Sherman

On April 3, 2025, a court sentenced Charles Limmer to two years of home detention. Limmer pleaded guilty to conspiracy after prosecutors charged him with Endangered Species Act, Lacey Act, and smuggling violations for trafficking in numerous specimens of butterflies (18 U.S.C. § 371). This protected species is known as “birdwings” due to their exceptional size, angular wings, and birdlike flight. As part of the plea, Limmer forfeited 1,600 specimens.

Limmer obtained a license in 2016 to import and export wildlife.  After Limmer and his business violated numerous import/export regulations, the Fish and Wildlife Service suspended his license.

Between October 2022 and September 2023, Limmer and others imported and exported at least 59 illegal shipments containing wildlife, valued at approximately $216,000. They falsely labelled the wildlife as “decorative wall coverings” or “origami paper creations.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement conducted the investigation.

• No. 1:23-CR-00265 (District of Maryland)
• AUSA Kimberly Phillips
• RCEC Kertisha Dixon
• RCEC David Lastra

On April 3, 2025, a court sentenced Idrissa Bagayoko to time served, followed by one year of supervised release to include three months’ home confinement for transporting and selling unregistered pesticides. Bagayoko also will pay $5,640 in restitution to reimburse the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the cost of destroying unregistered pesticides.

A jury convicted Bagayoko in November 2024 on two counts for transporting and selling the unregistered pesticide Sniper DDVP. The jury found Bagayoko guilty of violating the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act (HMTA) (7 U.S.C. §§ 136j(a)(1) (A), 136l(b)(1)(B); 49 U.S.C. § 5124).

Bagayoko owned and operated Maliba Trading, LLC. According to evidence presented at trial, on September 29, 2021, Bagayoko drove from New York to Maryland and sold two boxes of Sniper DDVP to an individual in Maryland. Police later stopped Bagayoko in Elkton, Maryland, with 18 additional boxes of Sniper DDVP containing a total of 1,728 bottles.

Samples taken from the bottles revealed the presence of dichlorvos. EPA has classified dichlorvos as a probable human carcinogen. In total, the defendant transported more than 330 pounds of dichlorvos (a reportable quantity) without requisite shipping papers.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division, the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General, and the Elkton Maryland Police Department conducted the investigation.

• No. 4:24-CR-40016 (Western District of Arkansas)
• AUSA Sydney Stanley

On April 3, 2025, a court sentenced Redemption Repairs & Performance (RRP) to pay a $50,000 fine and complete a three-year term of probation.

RRP pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Air Act (CAA) for modifying and deleting the emissions control systems of diesel engines and tampering with and rendering inaccurate the vehicles’ onboard diagnostic (OBD) systems (42 U.S.C § 7413(c)(2)(C)).

RRP is a truck repair shop specializing in diesel engine repairs and performance located in Texarkana, Arkansas. Between May 2020 and October 2022, the company falsified, tampered with, and rendered inaccurate monitoring devices required to be maintained and followed under the CAA. After removing or altering the emission control equipment on diesel trucks, RRP modified the diesel trucks’ OBD systems to prevent detection of the removal and disabling of the equipment. The company performed this service on approximately 50 vehicles, charging between $2,600-$2,700 per truck.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation. 

• No. 3:24-CR-00430 (District of Oregon)
• AUSA Bryan Chinwuba
• RCEC Karla Perrin

On April 3, 2025, a court sentenced Ryan Richter, Ronald Chamness, Horseshoe Grove, LLC, and Chamness Dirt Works, Inc., for violations of the Clean Air Act (CAA).

Property management company Horseshoe Grove pleaded guilty to violating the CAA National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for asbestos work practice standards (42 U.S.C. §§ 7412(h),7413(c)(1)). Horseshoe Grove’s owner and operator Ryan Richter pleaded guilty to a CAA negligent endangerment violation (42 U.S.C. § 7413(c)(4)). Construction and demolition company Chamness Dirt Works pleaded guilty to violating the CAA NESHAP for asbestos, and company owner and president, Ronald Chamness, pleaded guilty to a CAA negligent endangerment violation (42 U.S.C. § 7413(c)(4)).

Horseshoe Grove and Chamness Dirt Works were sentenced to complete three-year terms of probation. Richter and Ronald Chamness were each sentenced to five-year terms of probation and ordered to remediate the impacted site in accordance with stipulated conditions of probation. No fine was sought against the parties due to the cost of remediating the site to remove any remaining asbestos. The approximate cost of the remediation was $175,000.

In November 2022, Horseshoe Grove acquired a property in The Dalles, Oregon, which included a mobile home park and two dilapidated apartment buildings. The previous owner provided the new buyers with an asbestos survey from December 2021, which identified more than 5,000 square feet of friable chrysotile asbestos within the two deteriorating buildings, with levels ranging from two percent to 25 percent. The survey also noted non-friable asbestos in various building materials, including siding and flooring, throughout the apartments. Despite these findings, Horseshoe Grove failed to implement the necessary precautions for asbestos removal.

In March 2023, Chamness Dirt Works began demolishing the two asbestos-laden structures without following proper removal procedures. Chamness did not engage a certified asbestos abatement contractor, did not wet the asbestos-containing debris, and dumped the material in a regular landfill.

Horseshoe Grove paid Chamness Dirt Works a total of $49,330 for the demolition, which did not meet the required safety standards.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation.

• No. 1:23-CR-00378 (Eastern District of New York)
• ECS Senior Trial Attorney Ryan Connors
• AUSA Anna Karamigios

On April 9, 2025, the court sentenced Dr. John Waldrop and Toney Jones for their involvement in the largest seizure of bird mounts in U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) history. Waldrop pleaded guilty to conspiracy to smuggle wildlife and Endangered Species Act (ESA) violations. He was ordered to pay a $900,000 fine and will complete a three-year term of probation (18 U.S.C. § 371; 16 U.S.C. §§ 1538(e), 1540(b)(1)). This is one of the largest fines ever imposed in an ESA case. Jones was sentenced to complete a six-month term of probation for violating the ESA (16 U.S.C. §§ 1538(e), 1540(b)(1)).

Over a period of five years, Waldrop illegally imported thousands of museum-quality taxidermy bird mounts and preserved eggs to build a personal collection. His collection of 1,401 taxidermy bird mounts and 2,594 eggs included:

• Four eagles protected by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act
• 179 bird and 193 egg species listed in the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and
• 212 bird and 32 egg species protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

This included extremely rare specimens such as three eggs from the Nordmann’s greenshank, an Asian shorebird with only 900 to 1,600 remaining birds in the wild.

Between 2016 and 2020, Waldrop imported birds and eggs without the required declarations and permits. After USFWS inspectors at John F. Kennedy International Airport and elsewhere intercepted several shipments, Waldrop recruited Jones, who worked on his Georgia farm, to receive the packages. Jones also deposited approximately $525,000 in a bank account that Waldrop then used to pay for the imports and hide his involvement. Waldrop and Jones used online sales sites such as eBay and Etsy to buy birds and eggs from around the world, including Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Uruguay.

In total, Waldrop spent more than $1.2 million to illegally build this collection. Pursuant to the plea agreement, Waldrop abandoned his collection, which was distributed to the USFWS forensic laboratory, the Smithsonian, and other museums and universities.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement conducted the investigation.

• No. 1:24-CR-10074 (District of Massachusetts)
• ECS Senior Trial Attorney Matthew Morris
• AUSA Danial Bennett
• AUSA Kaitlin Brown
• ECS Paralegal Jonah Fruchtman

On April 9, 2025, a court sentenced John D. Murphy to nine months’ incarceration, and three months and one day of home confinement, followed by three years’ supervised release. Murphy was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine. Murphy pleaded guilty to violating the Animal Welfare Act for possessing dogs to use in an animal fighting venture (7 U.S.C. § 2156(b)).

Prosecutors charged Murphy after investigators identified him on recorded calls discussing dog fighting in a separate investigation. Subsequent court-authorized searches of his Facebook accounts revealed Murphy’s extensive involvement in dogfighting.

On June 7, 2023, authorities executed a search warrant at Murphy’s residence and another home, seizing 13 pit bull-type dogs. Several dogs exhibited scarring consistent with animal fighting. Authorities also recovered equipment used in fights, including syringes, anabolic steroids, a skin stapler, forceps, and equipment and literature for training dogs.

The investigation revealed that Murphy often communicated with other dogfighters via Facebook and posted dogfighting-related photos to his Facebook account. Additionally, Murphy posted videos depicting pit bull-type dogs tethered to treadmills commonly used to physically condition dogs for fighting.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General conducted the investigation with assistance from the following agencies: Homeland Security Investigations; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service; U.S. Marshals Service; Maine State Police; New Hampshire State Police; Massachusetts Office of the State Auditor; Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; and Police Departments in Hanson, Boston, and Acton, Massachusetts.

• No. 1:24-CR-00685 (Southern District of New York)
• AUSA Alexandra Rothman

On April 10, 2025, a court sentenced Jose Correa to pay a $10,000 fine and complete a two-year term of probation. Correa pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Air Act for negligently releasing asbestos into the ambient air (42 U.S.C. § 7413(c)(4)).

Between November and December 2022, Correa removed asbestos-containing floor tiles and mastic from a supermarket in Manhattan without hiring an asbestos abatement contractor. Instead, the material was removed by construction workers who were not provided with protective gear, thereby releasing asbestos into the ambient air and placing the workers in imminent danger of death and serious bodily injury.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation.

• No. 1:24-PO-00040 (Western District of Virginia)
• AUSA Corey Hall

On April 11, 2025, a court sentenced Coby Brummett to 30 days’ incarceration with credit for time served. Brummett was also ordered to pay more than $6,200 in restitution for illegally digging and removing ginseng from within the boundaries of Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. Additionally, Brummett is banned from the Park for three years (36 C.F.R. § 2.1(c)(3)).

An investigation by Park Service rangers determined that Brummett dug up more than 300 ginseng roots from within the confines of the park.

The restitution will be paid to the National Park Service, which conducted the investigation.

• No. 2:24-CR-14046 (Southern District of Florida)
• ECS Senior Trial Attorney Adam Cullman
• AUSA Daniel Funk

On April 11, 2025, a court ordered Royce Gillham to pay $2,857,029 in restitution to ACT Fuels.

This is in addition to the court’s sentence of 37 months’ incarceration, followed by three years of supervised release, ordered on March 14, 2025. Gillham, the former general manager of a biofuel producer based in Fort Pierce, Florida, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud and conspiring to make false claims (18 U.S.C.§ 371).

This biofuel company produced and sold renewable fuel and fuel credits and claimed to turn various feedstocks into biodiesel. When reporting the number of gallons produced to the Internal Revenue Service and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Gillham and his employer vastly overstated their production volume in an effort to generate more credits. When auditors sought more information from the company, Gillham and his co-conspirators gave them false information about their fuel production and customers.

The scheme generated more than $7 million in fraudulent EPA renewable fuels credits and sought over $6 million in fraudulent tax credits connected to the purported production of biodiesel.

ACT Fuels purchased the fraudulent fuel credits in question and had to buy replacement credits when authorities found that Gillham’s company produced fraudulent renewable identification numbers or RINs.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations conducted the investigation.

• No. 6:24-CR-00025 (District of Montana)
• AUSA Ryan Weldon

On April 14, 2025, a court sentenced Mold Wranglers, Inc., a Kalispell-based hazardous material mitigation company, to pay a $50,000 fine, and complete a two-year term of probation, to include an environmental compliance plan. The company also will pay $348,000 in restitution to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Mold Wranglers pleaded guilty to a False Claims Act conspiracy for filing false claims with the VA for lead paint abatement work that was never performed (18 U.S.C. § 286).

Between 2018 and 2019, Mold Wranglers claimed it performed lead abatement work at the Freedom’s Path Fort Harrison facility. The project consisted of converting residential units for low-income veterans and their families. Mold Wranglers submitted documentation to the VA for work including painting over lead-based paint with encapsulating paint. However, the company failed to comply with federal regulations governing lead work, as its employees were not certified to handle lead, and it did not notify the Environmental Protection Agency of the work as required.

Additionally, Mold Wranglers applied the encapsulating paint in a manner inconsistent with the manufacturer’s specifications.

The agreement the company made with the VA specified it was not performing an actual abatement but merely “aesthetically repairing the paint and finishing the homes.” Despite this agreement, the company submitted 11 false payment requests, claiming to have performed lead abatement work, and received a total of $456,000 in federal funds for work that did not meet the necessary standards for lead abatement.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division and Office of Inspector General, The Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development conducted the investigation.

• No. 6:24-CR-00024 (District of Montana)
• AUSA Ryan Weldon

On April 14, 2025, a court sentenced Melanie Ann Carlin to pay a $150,000 fine and complete a three-year term of probation. Carlin pleaded guilty to violating the knowing endangerment provision of the Toxic Substances Control Act for failing to provide required lead-based paint disclosures to veterans residing at Freedom’s Path Fort Harrison in Helena, Montana (15 U.S.C. § 2615(b)(2)(A)). Carlin’s actions led to the exposure of veterans and their families to dangerous levels of lead, a hazardous substance known to cause serious health issues, particularly for children.

Carlin owns a property management company called 406 Properties, Inc. She was responsible for overseeing rental units at Freedom’s Path, a housing facility with units built prior to 1978. The facility provided affordable homes for veterans and their families. Between September 2019 and September 2021, Carlin knowingly failed to provide mandated lead disclosures. Carlin knew that the property was built before 1978, which meant that the presence of lead paint was likely.

In 2019, after receiving an email from the Montana Department of Commerce about lead paint concerns, Carlin signed and submitted forms for the units, falsely indicating that they were either free of lead paint or built after 1978. Despite having first-hand knowledge that lead paint was present in the buildings, Carlin continued to neglect her duty to disclose this information to tenants.

In September 2021, an 18-month-old child living in one of the units ingested lead paint chips.

Subsequent medical tests revealed the child had dangerously high blood lead levels and required lead poisoning treatment. Carlin admitted to agents that she knew about the lead paint disclosure requirement but failed to give residents the required notice. Carlin’s failure to act placed veterans and their families at imminent risk of serious harm.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division, The Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development conducted the investigation.

On April 15, 2025, Aghorn Operating, Inc., Trent Day, and Kodiak Roustabout, Inc., entered guilty pleas and were sentenced in relation to Worker Safety, Clean Air Act (CAA) and Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) violations. Day pleaded guilty to a CAA negligent endangerment charge and was sentenced to serve five months’ incarceration, followed by one year of supervised release (42 U.S.C. § 7413(c)(4)). Aghorn pleaded guilty to CAA negligent endangerment and an Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) willful violation count for the death of an employee, Jacob Dean, and his wife, Natalee Dean (42 U.S.C. § 7413(c)(4); 29 U.S.C. § 666(e)). Aghorn was sentenced to pay a $1 million fine and complete a two-year term of probation. Kodiak pleaded guilty to making a materially false statement (18 U.S.C. §1001) regarding well integrity testing that is required under the SDWA and was sentenced to pay a $400,000 fine and complete a one-year term of probation.

Aghorn owns and operates oil wells and leases in Texas. Kodiak performed oilfield support and maintenance services for Aghorn. Day was a vice president for both Aghorn and Kodiak. The CAA and OSHA charges stem from the defendants releasing hydrogen sulfide that caused the deaths of Aghorn employee, Jacob Dean, and his wife, Natalee Dean. Both victims were overcome by hydrogen sulfide at Aghorn’s facility in Odessa. Aghorn and Day later obstructed the investigation into the Deans’ deaths. The SDWA-related violation stems from false statements made by Kodiak regarding the mechanical integrity of Aghorn injection wells in forms and pressure charts filed with the State of Texas Railroad Commission. In addition to the fine, Aghorn will guarantee that at least 33 tests conducted for Aghorn wells during its year of probation are witnessed or conducted by a third party.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation, with assistance from the Texas Railroad Commission, Ector County Environmental Enforcement, and the Odessa Fire Department.

• No. 6:24-CR-00013 (Southern District of Georgia)
• AUSA Darron J. Hubbard

On April 15, 2025, a court sentenced Justin Taylor to complete a five-year term of probation and pay $279,642 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. Taylor pleaded guilty to conspiracy to tamper with a monitoring device and filing a fraudulent tax return (18 U.S.C. § 371; 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1)).

Between January 2018 and January 2021, Taylor worked as a mechanic. Using a high-powered computer that supported diagnostic tools for heavy-duty logging equipment, Taylor performed emission-control “deletes” for more than 200 owners of diesel engines.

The changes Taylor made to the emission controls on those machines disabled the electronic monitoring devices and methods required under the Clean Air Act. Taylor routinely charged $2,000 for this service, earning more than $1.2 million during this period while reporting only $166,853 in income.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations conducted the investigation.

• No. 1:23-CR-00787 (District of New Jersey)
• ECS Senior Trial Attorney Ethan Eddy
• AUSA Michelle Goldman

On April 16, 2025, a court sentenced Johnnie Lee Nelson to complete a two-year term of probation to include one year of home confinement. Nelson also will perform 100 hours of community service. Nelson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess, train, and transport dogs for an animal fighting venture and to sponsor and exhibit dogs in an animal fighting venture (18 U.S.C. § 371).

On March 23, 2019, officers responded to an emergency call at an auto body garage in Upper Deerfield Township, New Jersey. They found a fighting pit in the garage, along with two pit bull-type dogs, still fighting, that had been placed into an inoperable car on a lift in the garage as the participants fled on foot. The dogs later died from injuries they sustained while fighting. Officers also found an uninjured pit bull-type dog in a car just outside the garage, along with a rudimentary veterinary suture and skin staple kit in a bag.

Evidence revealed that Nelson’s co-defendant, Tommy Watson, organized the fight, and that their dog was scheduled for the next fight on deck. They jointly possessed and trained this dog for this particular fight, as shown by cell phone video evidence. Nelson and Watson participated in a dog fighting operation they called “From Da Bottom Kennels.” From Da Bottom Kennels and others live-streamed dog fight videos from that garage via the Telegram app. Watson is scheduled for trial to begin on June 4, 2025.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation.

• Nos. 3:24-CR-00615, 23-CR-01879 (Southern District of California)
• AUSA Sabrina L. Feve
• AUSA Robert Miller
• Former AUSA Melanie Pierson

On April 18, 2025, a court sentenced Sarmad Ghaled Dafer to four months’ incarceration, followed by three years’ supervised release, to include 180 days of home confinement. Dafer also will pay $23,502 in restitution to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reimburse costs for quarantining three Mexican spider monkeys at the San Diego Zoo. Dafer is jointly and severally responsible along with co-defendant Sarkon Yonan Hanna for the restitution.

On August 14, 2023, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers stopped a man and woman attempting to drive a van into the United States from Mexico. During an initial inspection, a CBP officer discovered an animal carrier hidden behind the rear seat that contained live monkeys. The CBP officer referred the occupants and vehicle for a secondary examination. Officers found three baby spider monkeys hidden in the van. The officers seized the monkeys and placed them in quarantine.

A search of the co-conspirator’s phone led to evidence that Dafer purchased and coordinated the smuggling of monkeys across the border on three occasions, between June 2022 and August 2023.

Baby Mexican spider monkeys continue to nurse throughout their first year and ordinarily are not fully weaned and independent until they turn two. Most baby Mexican spider monkeys will continue to stay close to their mothers until they are approximately four years old.

Dafer’s Facebook messages and photos show that he intentionally sought baby monkeys to make the smuggling process easier. He even posted a photo of a baby spider monkey under a heat lamp in a small cage. This suggests that Dafer knew that the baby monkey he was selling had been prematurely separated from its mother.

Mexican spider monkey mothers will not voluntarily relinquish their young and the entire troop of spider monkeys will try to defend the mother and baby from perceived threats. Consequently, to capture the babies, poachers will typically have to kill or harm the mother and entire troop. In this case, genetic analysis confirmed the three babies each had different mothers.

Dafer pleaded guilty to conspiracy, and Hanna pleaded guilty to smuggling (18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 545.) Hanna was sentenced on March 14, 2025, to time served, followed by two years’ supervised release, along with the restitution. Hanna was in the car that attempted to smuggle the three monkeys into the United States from Mexico on August 14, 2023.

Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement conducted the investigation. 

Case photo of two of the three monkeys rescued by CBP.

• Nos. 3:24-CR-00824, 3:25-CR-00001 (District of New Jersey)
• ECS Trial Attorney Christopher Hale
• AUSA Kelly Lyons

On April 22, 2025, a court sentenced Antonio Periera to pay a $4,000 fine and complete a two-year term of probation. Periera and co-defendant Darren McClave pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice (18 U.S.C. § 371). McClave is scheduled for sentencing on June 30, 2025.

McClave, a captain of a clam vessel based out of New Jersey, participated in a scheme to illegally harvest and sell excess scallops, violating federal fishing regulations. While clam vessels are allowed to take a limited quantity of scallops as bycatch, McClave routinely exceeded these limits and sold the surplus to Pereira, a seafood dealer. To cover up the overfishing, McClave and Pereira worked together to falsify the Fishing Vessel Trip Reports and Dealer Reports required by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Law Enforcement conducted the investigation.

• No. 6:24-CR-00441 (District of Oregon)
• ECS Trial Attorney Stephen Foster
• ECS Trial Attorney Rachel M. Roberts
• AUSA William M. McLaren
• RCEC Karla G. Perrin
• ECS Law Clerk Maria Wallace

On April 22, 2025, a court sentenced J.H. Baxter & Co., Inc., and J.H. Baxter & Co., a California Limited Partnership, collectively, to pay a total of $1.5 million in criminal fines. In addition, both companies were ordered to serve five-year terms of probation. The companies’ president, Georgia Baxter-Krause, was sentenced to 90 days’ incarceration, followed by one year of supervised release.

The two companies (collectively J.H. Baxter) were responsible for a wood treatment facility in Eugene, Oregon. Both pleaded guilty to charges of illegally treating hazardous waste and knowingly violating the Clean Air Act (CAA) (42 U.S.C. § 6928(d)(2)(A); 42 U.S.C. § 7413(c)(1)). Baxter-Krause pleaded guilty to two counts of making false statements in violation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) (42 U.S.C. § 6928 (d)(3)).

J.H. Baxter used hazardous chemicals to treat and preserve wood at its Eugene facility. The wastewater from the wood preserving processes was hazardous waste. J.H. Baxter operated a wastewater treatment unit to treat and evaporate the waste. For years, however, when the facility accumulated too much water on site, employees transferred this water to a wood treatment retort to “boil it off,” greatly reducing the volume. J.H. Baxter would then remove the waste that remained, label it as hazardous waste, and ship it offsite for disposal.

J.H. Baxter was never issued a RCRA permit to treat its waste in this manner. The facility was also subject to CAA emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants. However, employees were directed to open all vents on the retorts, allowing discharges to the surrounding air.

State inspectors requested information about J.H. Baxter’s practice of boiling off hazardous wastewater. On two separate occasions, Baxter-Krause made false statements in response to these requests regarding the dates the practice took place, and which retorts were used. The investigation determined that Baxter-Krause knew J.H. Baxter maintained detailed daily production logs for each retort.

J.H. Baxter boiled off hazardous process wastewater in its wood treatment retorts on 136 days. Baxter-Krause was also aware that during this time the company used four of its five retorts to boil off wastewater.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation with assistance from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the Oregon State Police. 

• No. 3:24-CR-00533 (Northern District of Texas)
• ECS Trial Attorney Lauren Steele
• ECS Senior Trial Attorney Gary Donner

On April 29, 2025, a court sentenced Dlubak Glass Company (DGC) to pay a $100,000 fine and complete a four-year term of probation. The company pleaded guilty to making a false statement regarding the storage of hazardous waste (18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(2)).

DGC is in the business of processing and recycling glass products, including CRT (cathode ray tube) glass. CRTs have three components: a panel, a funnel, and a neck. Both the panel and the funnel are made of glass. CRT funnel glass contains significant amounts of lead, while panel glass typically contains lead in much lower quantities. Because of the presence of lead, used CRTs that are transported, stored, or disposed of can be considered a characteristic hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

DGC operated facilities in several states, including locations in Arizona, Texas, and Oklahoma. Pursuant to a Consent Order, DGC agreed to ship all the CRT glass at its Arizona facility offsite for recycling or disposal as hazardous waste. DGC later shipped approximately 4,000 tons of CRT glass from Yuma, Arizona, to its Texas facility, telling regulators that it would recycle the material by incorporating it into commercial products.

When Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (TCEQ) inspected DGC’s Texas facility they observed piles of CRT glass onsite. DGC’s plant manager told inspectors that the only CRT glass present at the location was “processed panel glass containing no lead.” Dlubak employees later repeated this assertion in a follow-up meeting with TCEQ. However, further investigation determined that the glass in question was composed of both panel and funnel glass, a fact which DGC was aware of when it made these statements to TCEQ.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation.

• No. 2:24-CR-20552 (Eastern District of Michigan)
• ECS Senior Counsel Kris Dighe
• AUSA Karen Reynolds
• RCEC Sasha Reyes

On April 29, 2025, a court sentenced Tribar Technologies, Inc. (Tribar), to pay a $200,000 fine, complete a five-year term of probation and enact an environmental compliance plan. Tribar also will pay $20,000 in restitution to the City of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The company pleaded guilty to negligently violating a pretreatment standard under the Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. §§ 1317(d) and 1319(c)(1)(A)).

Tribar manufactures automobile parts and presently operates five active plants in southeast Michigan. Plant 5 is a chrome plating facility located in Wixom, Michigan. It uses an electroplating process to apply chrome finishing to plastic automotive parts. Plant 5 generates wastewater that contains chromium compounds, including hexavalent chromium, a known carcinogen.

On July 23, 2022, Plant 5 accumulated approximately 15,000 gallons of untreated wastewater containing high concentrations of hexavalent chromium. This wastewater had higher levels of pollutants than the wastewater typically generated from Plant 5 operations. During the week beginning July 25, 2022, Plant 5 employees attempted to treat this wastewater in a holding tank to reduce the amount of hexavalent chromium before putting it into the Plant 5 wastewater treatment system. By the end of the week, the wastewater still contained high concentrations of hexavalent chromium.

On July 29, 2022, an employee discharged approximately 10,000 gallons of insufficiently treated wastewater from the holding tank into the Plant 5 wastewater treatment system. This discharge activated wastewater treatment system alarms, indicating that the wastewater required further treatment before it could be discharged to the Wixom sanitary sewer system. The employee disabled approximately 460 alarms and discharged the wastewater to the Wixom sanitary sewer system, and ultimately to the Wixom publicly owned treatment works, without completing the treatment necessary to remove chromium from the wastewater, as required by Tribar’s Industrial Pretreatment Program Permit.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted the investigation.