{"id":374577,"date":"2026-04-04T10:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T10:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/374577\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T10:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T10:58:13","slug":"mass-man-sentenced-to-prison-after-trafficking-wildlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/374577\/","title":{"rendered":"Mass. man sentenced to prison after trafficking wildlife"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Massachusetts man was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to criminal charges in connection with buying, selling and trading wildlife parts<\/a> and products from threatened and endangered species, including polar bears, narwhals and tigers.<\/p>\n

Adam Bied<\/a>, 40, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to smuggle goods into the United States, specifically, illegally imported wildlife parts, and two counts of violating the Lacey Act, which prohibits trafficking in wildlife.<\/p>\n

On April 2, he was sentenced to eight months in prison and two years of supervised release. Bied was also ordered to pay a $75,000 fine to fund wildlife enforcement efforts.<\/p>\n

Bied began buying, selling and trading wildlife parts and products in January 2018 despite knowing many of the transactions were a violation of federal laws and regulations. Prosecutors say Bied \u201cknowingly failed\u201d to declare the wildlife upon its importation into the U.S. Sometimes the items were falsely labeled as \u201cdecorative masks\u201d or \u201crodents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bied placed orders with individuals in Cameroon and Indonesia who killed and acquired wildlife, including endangered and protected species, which he would then resell to customers in the U.S.<\/p>\n

On June 12, 2019, he sent another person\u2019s wife $285 for two baboon skulls, five monkey skulls and an eagle skull, court documents state. About a month later, he sent $300 via MoneyGram for more skulls, including a pangolin skull.<\/p>\n

In January 2021, court documents state Bied paid $2,500 via PayPal for an orangutan skull. And a month later, Bied paid $1,400 for three leopard skulls.<\/p>\n

The items, court documents state, were shipped to Bied\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

As part of the plea agreement, the U.S. attorney\u2019s office recommended 8 months in prison. He has also consented to the civil forfeiture of over 100 wildlife parts from endangered, threatened, or protected species seized in July 2021 from Bied\u2019s residence, storage unit and vehicle.<\/p>\n

These include orangutan skulls, tiger skulls<\/a>, leopard skin, skulls and a claw, jaguar skin and skull, African lion skulls, polar bear skull, narwhal tusk, otter skeleton, harp seal skull, pangolin skull, South American fur seal skull, elephant seal skull, babirusa skulls, mandrillus skulls, a wallaby skull and a jackal skull.<\/p>\n

In similar cases, wildlife parts that have been seized<\/a> are sent to the National Wildlife Property Repository through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service\u2019s Office for storage and educational use. Sometimes that can also include returning the items to the wild or transfer to another government agency for use, donation or disposal.<\/p>\n

These wildlife parts can be used to train government officials, educate the public and support forensic identification or research.<\/p>\n

The Repository <\/a>also provides a variety of services, including loaning out the parts for education or research and having educational programs that teach the public about the agency\u2019s role in combating wildlife trafficking.<\/p>\n

The Denver, Colorado, building where all of it is housed is eerie, being called the \u201cnational house of horrors\u201d and \u201ca Noah\u2019s ark of protected deceased biodiversity\u201d by The Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2017, there was a bag filled with 40,000 sea horses and a lamp made from a zebra\u2019s leg in the building, the newspaper reported.<\/p>\n

See below for a full list of all the items Bied was required to forfeit:<\/p>\n

One orangutan skull encased in wood<\/p>\n

Two babirusa skulls encased in wood<\/p>\n

One South American monkey skull<\/p>\n

One piece of narwhal tusk<\/p>\n

One South American fur seal<\/p>\n

Two sting ray stinger bones<\/p>\n

One leopard tortoise shell<\/p>\n

One piranha taxidermy mount<\/p>\n

Eight warthog tusks on a plaque<\/p>\n

One South American sea lion skull<\/p>\n

One greater cane rat skull<\/p>\n

Four mopani worms dried carcasses<\/p>\n

One queen Asian giant hornet taxidermy<\/p>\n

Two yellow-casqued hornbill skulls<\/p>\n

Two black-casqued hornbill skulls<\/p>\n

Two white-thighed hornbill skulls<\/p>\n

One spitting cobra taxidermy mount<\/p>\n

One walrus skull (lower jaw only)<\/p>\n

One red-billed dwarf hornbill skull<\/p>\n

One African crested porcupine skull<\/p>\n

One loggerhead sea turtle taxidermied<\/p>\n

One hawksbill sea turtle full taxidermy mount<\/p>\n

One green sea turtle carapace<\/p>\n

One piece of whale baleen<\/p>\n

More News<\/p>\n

Read the original article on MassLive<\/a>. Add MassLive<\/a> as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Massachusetts man was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to criminal charges in connection with buying, selling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[179784,85,46,141,386],"class_list":{"0":"post-374577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-adam-bied","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}