A man who tried to smuggle finches hidden in hair curlers into the US for birdsong competitions has been jailed.
Insaf Ali, 62, was caught at JFK airport in New York in January last year with birds from Guyana concealed in two packs of the curlers.
He was previously arrested in 2018 carrying finch-stuffed hair curlers in his socks at the same airport, authorities said.
Prosecutors said Ali deserved “significant” prison time, calling him “one of New York’s finch-smuggling kingpins.”
He was jailed for a year and a day after pleading guilty to conspiring to import wildlife illegally.
Songbird competitions have been a pastime in the Caribbean for centuries with the animals judged on such factors such as how many times they chirp or sing.
But with the birds sometimes fetching thousands of dollars, the contests have fed wildlife trafficking that authorities in Latin America and the US have tried to combat.
“I’m going to stay away from the birds,” Ali pledged in a video he submitted to the court, “because it’s trouble.”
His lawyer, Christine Delince, asked for leniency. She said in a January 26 memo that Ali is "incredibly remorseful" for a crime fueled by a love of seed finches that dates to his childhood in Guyana and has given him solace through many personal difficulties.
"His actions were not just about money," she wrote, saying the birds "are a part of him and a part of his culture."
