Man sentenced for bid to illegally ship lizards to Hong Kong

Associated Press
Updated ·1 min read

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey man who illegally tried to send 10 live lizards to Hong Kong has been sentenced to three years of probation, including with six months of home confinement.

Jason Ksepka, 44, of Farmingdale, had pleaded guilty last September to falsely labeling an international shipment of wildlife from Lambertville in November 2017, according to federal prosecutors. He was sentenced Tuesday

Ksepka was paid $500 by someone else to send the package containing 10 live rhinoceros iguanas, prosecutors said. He falsely labeled the contents of the package as toys and used a fictitious name as the sender.

The package was destined for Hong Kong, but U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service inspectors intercepted it at New York’s JFK Airport and removed the animals.

One year prior to the shipment, prosecutors said the same individual had paid Ksepka $500 to ship 10 additional rhinoceros iguanas to Hong Kong.