LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Federal prosecutors are recommending that a German
national dubbed one of the most prolific tarantula smugglers in the world be
sentenced today to 10 months behind bars.
Sven Koppler, 37, of Wachtberg, Germany, pleaded guilty in January in
Los Angeles federal court to smuggling hundreds of the hairy, fearsome-looking
spiders into the United States by mail, according to the U.S. Attorney's
Office.
Koppler was arrested last December after arriving in Los Angeles to meet
with an associate in Torrence who also deals in the eight-legged arachnids,
according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
What federal authorities dubbed Operation Spiderman began in March 2010,
when a routine search of an international package revealed about 300 live
tarantulas being shipped to Los Angeles, prosecutors said.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents intercepted a second package that
contained 22 Mexican red-kneed tarantulas, a species that is protected under an
international treaty.
Agents ordered more tarantulas from Koppler, who sent a package that
included about 70 live tarantulas and one dead spider.
Koppler made about $350,000 as a result of more than 100 tarantula
transactions with spider fanciers in dozens of countries, including nine people
in the United States, according to the criminal complaint.
In his sentencing letter to U.S. District Judge S. James Otero, Koppler
claims that breeding endangered tarantulas increases the population of the
spiders.
But arachnologist Rick West said in a declaration to the court that the
exotic pet trade creates a higher demand for certain tarantulas ``which then
hurts the wild populations of these tarantulas because smugglers frequently
obtain them from the wild by digging up their burrows.'
Two of the species smuggled by Koppler are only found in a small
geographic area of Mexico, ``and have been seriously impacted by the commercial
pet trade,' West said.
Koppler also claims in his letter that his tarantulas are ``harmless to
humans,'
However, West states that all 933 known species of the animal carry
venom that can be dangerous to people.
Tarantulas also carry bacteria that causes flesh-eating disease in
humans, and have ``barbed hairs that they can kick onto people which causes
severe skin reactions,' West said.
Along with the prison sentence, prosecutors recommend that Koppler be
ordered to pay about $8,000 in fines and serve three years under supervised
release.