A man repeatedly caught trying to smuggle finches from Guyana to New York for bird song competitions has been sentenced to one year and one day in prison.
Insaf Ali, 62, was stopped at John F Kennedy Airport in January 2022 with two packs of curlers that smugglers use to get birds past customs officials.
It was the second time Ali had been convicted in federal court in Brooklyn of a crime related to bird trafficking, and he promised it would be the last.
“I’ll stay away from the birds,” he promised in a video he submitted to the court, “because it’s a problem.”
Ali pleaded guilty last summer to conspiring to illegally import wildlife.
He was previously arrested in 2018 for wearing finch-stuffed curlers in his socks at JFK, authorities said.
In that case, he pleaded guilty to bootlegging and was sentenced to two years probation and a $7,800 fine.
Prosecutors argued in a Jan. 31 memo that Ali deserved a “significant” prison sentence, calling him “one of New York’s finch smuggling kingpins.”
Songbird competitions have been a pastime in the Caribbean for centuries, with birds judged on factors like how often they chirp or sing.
While the birds sometimes fetch thousands of dollars, the contests have fueled the wildlife trafficking that authorities in Latin America and the United States have sought to combat.
Finches sometimes die as they are brought to the United States, stuffed into curlers and hidden to escape detection.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection are also concerned that such smuggling could spread bird diseases.
Ali’s attorney, Christine Delince, asked for leniency.
He said Ali is “incredibly remorseful” for a crime fueled by a love of seed finches dating back to his childhood in Guyana and has given him comfort through many personal hardships.
“His actions weren’t just about money,” she wrote, saying birds “are a part of him and a part of his culture.”
