Local News in Brief : Wildlife Agent Sentenced

The first U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service inspector ever convicted of corruption was sentenced Friday to a year in prison and 2,000 hours of community service for illegally importing more than 50,000 exotic reptiles from Colombia.

Daniel Gus Noether, a 10-year wildlife service employee, was accused of accepting more than $30,000 in bribes for approving the illegal shipments at Los Angeles International Airport, which involved crocodiles, boa constrictors, mud turtles and other reptiles that are protected by international treaties.

“This was a man who used his Fish and Wildlife Service position as his own personal fiefdom, for his own personal profit,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Maurice A. Leiter, who prosecuted the case.

Noether’s attorney, David R. Evans, scoffed at the idea that the animals were rare and said that Colombia in most cases banned export of the live animals because it could collect a fee on the animals’ skins.

Evans said that Noether, 39, of Lakewood, plans to spend his community service hours working for the Wildlife Waystation, a San Fernando Valley charitable group that shelters exotic and native wildlife.