ELR Citation: ELR 20122
No(s). 04-15487 (11th Cir. Jun 23, 2006)

The court upholds an individual's 17-month sentence for importing and conspiring to import protected orchids in violation of the Endangered Species Act and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The individual used legally imported orchids to avoid the detection of the undocumented orchids. He argued that the lower court misinterpreted the term "market value of the plants" in the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines §2Q2.1 when it based the market value of the individual's offense on the value of the shipments in their entirety rather than on the value of the undocumented orchids within each shipment. But where the customs documentation is false and misleading and where the correctly documented fish, wildlife, or plants are part and parcel of a charged, and subsequently pled to, conspiracy to illegally smuggle undocumented CITES-protected fish, wildlife, or plants into the United States, the market value under §2Q2.1 should include the value of the entire shipment. Nor did the court violate the individual's Sixth Amendment rights.