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TYLER, TEXAS (KETK) — A 63-year-old Tyler eco-tourism guide has been sentenced for smuggling live snakes into the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney John M. Bales today.
William Lamar pleaded guilty on June 18, 2013, to importing wildlife taken in violation of foreign law and was sentenced to three years of probation today by U.S. District Judge Michael H. Schneider.
According to information presented in court, on August 29, 2012, Lamar imported seven live snakes that he had purchased at a market in Lima, Peru. Lamar smuggled the snakes in his jacket on flights from Lima to Miami, Florida and then to Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport. The next day, after TSA agents refused to let him board a commuter plane to Tyler with the snakes, Lamar traveled aboard a ground transport shuttle from DFW to his home in Tyler. Game Wardens went to Lamar’s residence and seized the snakes.
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