Two men who gift wrapped and posted more than a dozen live lizards from Australia have been sentenced in the US for smuggling native reptiles.
The Australian Border Force says the two men, aged 39 and 31, pleaded guilty to the charge in Miami, Florida after investigations by the ABF and the US Fish & Wildlife Service's Office of Law Enforcement.
Both were sentenced last month.
Both men admitted travelling from the US to Broome in WA in March 2018 to capture native spiny-tailed lizards to sell them in the US.
They captured and mailed two packages of lizards back to Miami, Florida and Medford, Oregon, concealing them in gift-wrapped packages inside a larger shipping box containing souvenirs.
The ABF seized one of the packages in April 2018 within a WA postal facility, and found 15 lizards concealed in multiple plastic containers with holes for airflow.
The 39-year-old was sentenced to three years of supervised release, 300 days of home detention and will pay a $40,000 fine.
The 31-year-old was sentenced to three years of supervised release, six months of home detention and 250 hours of community service.
ABF Acting Commander Operations West, Shaun Senior, said the conviction highlights the close collaboration ABF has with domestic and international partners to identify those involved in smuggling wildlife.
"Wildlife smuggling is a global problem and one of the largest transnational organised criminal activities," he said on Wednesday.
"Posting animals in packages is illegal, cruel and inhumane, many animals smuggled in this way do not survive," he said.
