UPDATE AND CORRECTION: Changes throughout (see below) . . .
Duc Le of Garden Grove pleaded guilty today to conspiring to illegally bring live Asian songbirds into the United States by attaching them to the legs of another Garden Grove man who has already pleaded guilty to smuggling the birds under his pants.
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Le, who entered his plea in a Los Angeles federal courthouse, faces up to five years in prison at his June 23 sentencing.
Sony Dong, 46, faces up to 20 years in federal lock-up at his
April 26 sentencing after having pleaded guilty to illegally importing wildlife.
He was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport last March after arriving
on a flight from Vietnam. Authorities in the Customs area found 14
birds he had
wrapped in cloth and strapped to his legs and ankles.
Amazingly, all survived the trip.
A search of Dong's Garden Grove home turned up another 51 songbirds,
according to authorities, who put the street value on the chirpers at
$400 each.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.