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He even posted photos from his collection while seeking buyers on Facebook – featuring, among others, the immense and popular black scorpion, which glows green or blue under ultraviolet light.
A federal judge in Trenton this week sentenced Wlodzimie Lapkiewicz, 30, to six months home confinement and four years’ probation for illegally smuggling the wildlife into New Jersey,
The sentence was part of a plea bargain with the government, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
For three years after U.S. postal inspectors in 2015 warned him to stop, Lapkiewicz, of Metuchen, continued importing live insects and invertebrates without proper permits – what’s commonly referred to as “brown-boxing,” Carpenito said.
Several times, a federal complaint says, Lapkiewicz imported West African emperors – one of the largest scorpions in the world – along with dictator scorpions, both of which are protected species.
Lapkiewicz “participated and assisted others in intentionally mislabeling parcels of live wildlife to avoid detection,” Carpenito said. “The investigation also revealed that Lapkiewicz utilized social media to arrange buyers for the scorpions, giant millipedes, and other invertebrates that he had illegally imported.”
The U.S. attorney credited special agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Law Enforcement, with the investigation leading to the guilty plea secured by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn Barnes of Carpenito’s Criminal Division in Newark.
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