SAN FRANCISCO — A Louisiana man accused of trafficking more than 1,800 turtles faces up to five years in federal prison.

Between January 2022 and December 2023, Albert Bazaar, originally from Angie, Louisiana, is accused of poaching and selling more than 1,700 loggerhead musk turtles, 100 stripe-neck musk turtles, and 15 striped mud turtles from their native habitats in Florida. Bazaar also allegedly aided and abetted an exporter who shipped the turtles from San Francisco to Taiwan in eight separate transactions.

The exporter financed Bazaar’s poaching trips from Louisiana to Florida, including sending money so Bazaar could buy a boat and van.

Bazaar also created a fraudulent declaration of captive-bred wildlife that falsely stated to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that the turtles were lawfully bred in Alabama and Georgia, the indictment says.

The turtles are estimated to be worth more than $550,000 in the Asian pet trade, federal officials said. 

If convicted, Bazaar could be sentenced to up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each charge he faces, the U.S. Department of Justice said on May 7. 

Bazaar will be held in custody ahead of his trial in Phoenix, Arizona, a federal judge ordered.