Bizarre butterfly bids this case

Wen_Zhengyu

Three butterfly "enthusiasts" in Shandong province came together because they were obsessed with butterflies. However, knowing that the butterflies they bought belonged to the species protected by international conventions, they smuggled more than 2,000 butterflies (dead bodies) from Malaysia and other countries by mail for sale for huge profits. After being seized by Jinan Customs, the butterflies were identified and the total value involved was as high as more than 1.5 million yuan.

On November 2, 2017, the Jinan Intermediate People's Court made a first-instance judgment in the "largest smuggling of endangered butterfly products in the country", and the three defendants Wei Maopeng, Xu Chundong and Zhu Lin were sentenced to 10, 7 and 5 years in prison for smuggling precious animal products, and were sentenced to confiscation of personal property of 50,000 yuan, fined 40,000 yuan, and fined 20,000 yuan respectively.

"Enthusiasts" open companies to sell butterfly products

Butterfly specimen products are colorful and very beautiful, and the endangered species among them are sought after by many people. Some smugglers are only interested in profit, desperate to take risks, illegally purchase these endangered and protected species through delivery channels, and sell them for private profit.

Wei Maopeng, a 32-year-old channel salesman at an investment management company in Shandong, met Xu Chundong, 34, who worked for a well-known state-owned enterprise in Jinan through a friend, and both were "enthusiasts" of butterfly specimens. In May 2015, the two negotiated to register and establish Shandong Butterfly Art Biotechnology Co., Ltd. in Jinan in the name of Xu Chundong, specializing in the processing, production and sales of butterfly specimens. The company is actually controlled by Wei Maopeng, and the two heads agreed to share profits: Xu Chundong 55%, Wei Maopeng 45%. They also opened related online stores on Taobao to solicit business. At the time, both had decent jobs and happy families.

Zhu Lin, a 24-year-old master's student at a university in Shandong, met Xu Chundong online because he also loved butterfly specimens. "We often participate in public welfare activities related to the protection of butterflies, introduce butterflies to primary school students, etc., or arrange butterfly exhibitions. The more opportunities there are, the more familiar they become. Xu Chundong said that the obsession with butterflies made the three of them friends.

During the summer vacation of 2015, at the invitation of Xu Chundong, Zhu Lin came to Xu's company to work, responsible for the unfolding and repair of butterfly specimens. During this period, Wei Maopeng paid Zhu Lin a monthly remuneration of 2,000 yuan. Because he felt that "the profit from selling domestic butterfly specimens was too low", one day, Wei Maopeng said to Xu Chundong: "Let's buy butterfly specimens from abroad and sell them, so that the profit will be higher." Xu Chundong readily agreed. As a result, the two ordered butterfly specimens from abroad through the Internet, smuggled them into the country through postal channels and false product names, processed and framed them, and resold them on Taobao. According to the division of labor, Wei Maopeng was responsible for funding the purchase of raw butterflies from abroad, and Xu Chundong was responsible for selling butterflies into handicrafts. After the arrival of the first butterfly, Xu Chundong quickly sold the Luzon butterfly in his hand at a price of 750 yuan per piece for huge profits. In October 2015, due to Zhu Lin's high level of English, Wei Maopeng asked him to assist in contacting foreign investors to purchase butterfly specimens and pay him 600 yuan.

In November 2015, Zhu Lin began to contact foreign sellers through Facebook, and soon reached a purchase intention with sellers in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries. After contacting the seller, Wei Maopeng and Xu Chundong decide the order quantity, price and transaction method, and finally Wei Maopeng pays the foreign seller through "Western Union" or "PayPal". The high income made Wei and Xu overjoyed. As the specimens of "butterflies" arrived, they negotiated the price at which the butterflies would be sold, looking for a buyer with a higher bid.

Butterfly specimens are hidden in parcels

On the afternoon of January 18, 2016, at the Jinan International Mail Processing Center, where the Jinan Customs Office Supervision Working Group is located, an ordinary parcel caught the attention of the supervisors. This parcel declaration from Malaysia is called "Dress", and the X-ray image imaging area of a normal dress will show more wrinkles and accessories, while this parcel imaging area, although the color is similar to that of a dress, does not show the folds and accessories that a dress image should have. With rich experience in judging maps, the supervisors determined that the package had major suspicions and immediately decided to open the box for inspection. Sure enough, after opening the box, the "dress" on the declaration form became a flowery butterfly specimen, and the inventory found that there were 261 suspected endangered butterfly specimens in the package.

Endangered butterfly specimens are not allowed to be sold in China at all. After the preliminary screening of the clues, Jinan Customs immediately deployed to investigate and set up a special case team. After determining the smuggling methods of criminals to falsely report and conceal the entry of endangered animal products into the country, the special case team divided into two ways, immediately sent butterfly specimens for inspection and identification, and deployed to strengthen the monitoring of suspect parcels. The parcels of the postal channel have a certain timeliness, and the delay in receiving the goods will make the suspect alert. After seizing the parcel involved in the case, the special case team quickly locked the residence, office location, vehicle information and activity trajectory of the target suspect according to the information of the parcel recipient and made an emergency dispatch.

On February 3, 2016, the Jinan Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau arrested Xu Chundong, a person involved in the case. After a surprise interrogation, on the evening of the same day, with the assistance of Xu Chundong, the suspects Wei Maopeng and Zhu Lin were arrested. The case-handling personnel also seized more than 2,000 butterfly specimens suspected of smuggling into their residences and offices.

At the same time, the task force also intercepted four parcels from Malaysia, Indonesia, Solomon Islands and other countries in the mail center, and the declared names of these parcels were "T-shirts", "works of art", "clothes", etc., but the parcels were all butterfly specimens. So far, a total of 829 butterfly specimens have been seized in the five packages seized.

After investigation by the case-handling organs, since August 2015, Wei Maopeng, Xu Chundong and others, without the permission of relevant departments and inspection and quarantine, ordered butterfly specimens from abroad through the Internet, used postal channels, smuggled them into the country in the name of "skirts" and "works of art", and processed and framed them and sold them online for profit. Fan Shu, a customs investigator in Jinan, said that the Victorian bird wing butterfly has the highest value, with a purchase price of about 40 US dollars, and it is worth more than 1,000 yuan after being made into a finished product.

According to the identification, 1244 of the 2800 butterflies (dead bodies) seized by Jinan Customs belong to the protected species of Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, involving six species: the kingfisher red-necked butterfly, the green bird winged butterfly, the red bird winged butterfly, the bluebird winged butterfly, the Victorian bird-winged butterfly, and the seaside butterfly. A further 20 Luzon butterflies are protected species in Appendix I of the Convention. This case has also become the largest smuggling of endangered butterfly labels seized by China's customs system since China signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

20,000 and 1.5 million became the focus of the trial debate

At the beginning of 2017, the case of smuggling endangered butterfly labels in a large amount of the country was held in public at the Jinan Intermediate People's Court, and the three defendants involved in the case, Wei Maopeng, Xu Chundong, and Zhu Lin, looked depressed and appeared in court for trial, accused of smuggling precious animal products.

During the trial, in the face of court interrogation, the three people said that they understood that some of the butterfly specimens belonged to protected species, but did not realize the seriousness of the problem. "Why do some of the packages that mail butterfly specimens have the words 'dress' written on them?" The judge asked. Wei Maopeng argued that it was written by the supplier without authorization. Zhu Lin argued that the other party claimed to avoid taxes and other factors, and most of the packages were written in English as "dried insects" and did not deliberately conceal the contents of the packages. When the prosecution said the value of the items involved, the three were surprised: "I have no objection to the crime and the facts of the case, but I have objections to the value of the appraisal." Although Wei Maopeng and the other three had realized the illegality of their actions, the original butterfly that had only cost 3647.8 US dollars (about 20,000 yuan) to buy was appraised to be worth more than 1.5 million yuan!

In court debate, the focus of the dispute is on the value of the entire case. According to the appraisal conclusion issued by the Judicial Appraisal Center of the Yunnan Endangered Species Science and Technology Commission, it was confirmed that 1180 of the more than 2,800 butterfly specimens seized belonged to the protected species of Appendix II of the Convention, and after investigation and statistics, the three people smuggled a total of 1264 imported protected species. The prosecutor pointed out that according to the Notice of the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the State Forestry Administration, the Ministry of Public Security, and the General Administration of Customs on the Verification of the Value of Terrestrial Wildlife Products Listed in Appendix I and Appendix II of CITES Involved in Criminal Cases of Destroying Wildlife Resources and the Notice of the Ministry of Forestry on How to Determine the Value Standards of Wild Animals under National Key Protection and Their Products in Wildlife Cases, the value standards for the protection of terrestrial wild animals at the first level are the value standards for first-level protection of terrestrial wildlife. According to the 12.5 times the management fee for the protection and management of this kind of animal resources, the value standard of the second-level protection of terrestrial wild animals shall be implemented in accordance with 16.7 times the fee for the protection and management of the animal resources. According to this calculation method, the appraisal authority gave the appraisal conclusion of the amount involved in the case of 1.509 million.

Wei Maopeng's defender said that there were problems with the relevant calculation methods, lacked legal basis, and the value of the case was far from reaching 1.5 million yuan. The prosecutor responded that the judicial appraisal center of the Yunnan Endangered Science and Technology Commission undertook the appraisal work, and its appraisal business scope included the forensic appraisal of the genus, species, protection level, and economic value of wild animals and their products, and the appraisal organ held the wildlife forensic appraisal practice certificate issued by the Ministry of Justice.

20,000 and 1.5 million, not only is the number itself hugely different, but the relative sentencing standards are also very different. According to the relevant provisions of the Criminal Law, if the value of smuggling endangered species reaches more than 1 million yuan, the sentence will be more than 10 years; if the case involves 200,000 yuan to 1 million yuan, the sentencing range is 5 to 10 years of fixed-term imprisonment. Since there was a large dispute between the prosecution and defense over the determination of the value of the butterflies involved in the case, for the sake of prudence, the Jinan Intermediate People's Court requested the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Provincial Forestry Department to appoint experts to participate in the trial, and the collegial panel also organized all parties to the litigation to participate in the forum.

Smuggling of butterfly specimens is punishable by law

The youngest defendant in the case, Zhu Lin, a second-year student, said at the trial that to better protect endangered butterflies, people should really understand their situation. In the face of the prosecutor's accusations, Zhu Lin cried with remorse: "I hope that the court can handle it lightly, let me return to society as soon as possible, and become a propagandist for the protection of butterflies." "The main offender, Xu Chundong, has loved butterflies since he was a child and has held many public exhibitions of butterfly specimens as a volunteer." I've loved butterflies since I was a kid, but I didn't expect to end up making a mistake because of butterflies. "Both Wei Maopeng and Xu Chundong said they had looked up domestic animal protection laws but had not found any penalties." At that time, I just thought that even if the butterfly package was seized by the customs, that is, the fine was fined, I did not expect the consequences to be so serious. Who would have thought that it would constitute a crime, and the amount of money involved would be so huge. ”

Views such as "the subjective viciousness of the defendants is low, and they are all young people who really love butterflies" frequently appear in the defense opinion. For this series of illegal purchases, the defense lawyer stressed that it was because the defendants' underestimation of the consequences of the violation, and in the whole process of the crime, the performance of the 3 defendants was even too frank: Wei Maopeng and Xu Chundong were very proud of being able to buy the butterfly specimens they wanted, and they took pictures of some of the butterfly specimens purchased through smuggling and sent them to the relevant WeChat groups with their mobile phones to display the "battle results". Wei Maopeng's defender also pointed out that the butterfly specimens involved in the case were allowed to be bought and sold in Malaysia, and that market transactions were relatively common, and it can also be seen from wei Maopeng's online communication with the seller that Wei Maopeng initially lacked sufficient legal awareness. In this regard, the prosecutor said that even if free trade is allowed abroad, it does not mean that Chinese law allows it.

"The crime of buying and selling rare and endangered butterfly specimens is a crime of huge profit. A butterfly bought for 300 yuan can sell for up to 4,000 yuan. "After the trial, the prosecutor introduced himself to the observers. In fact, Wei Maopeng and others, in the name of "hobbies", have made profits, and they have long deviated from the pure and simple love for butterflies, which eventually led to the evil consequences of going to the abyss of crime.

On November 2, 2017, the Jinan Intermediate People's Court rendered a first-instance judgment on the case: Wei Maopeng was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment and confiscated 50,000 yuan for smuggling precious animal products; Xu Chundong was sentenced to 7 years' imprisonment and fined 40,000 yuan for smuggling precious animal products; and Zhu Lin was sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment and fined 20,000 yuan for smuggling precious animal products. The butterflies involved in the case shall be disposed of by the seizure organ, the Jinan Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau, in accordance with law. One mobile phone each of the three defendants' crime tools was confiscated. In the face of the verdict, the 3 people sighed at the sky, and Zhu Lin cried bitterly in court.

Wang Guohui, the presiding judge who undertook the case, said that the three defendants in this case are all post-80s and post-90s, and they are in a good year, and the 3 people have paid the price for the criminal acts and also brought pain to their families, which is stifling! It is hoped that this case can give some animal and plant lovers a profound warning. "Young people can have a healthy and legitimate hobby, which is worth encouraging, and of course, they can also get legal benefits through hobbies." However, a gentleman loves money and has a way of getting it. Only by doing legitimate business and making legitimate profits can it be protected by law. ”

A public service slogan says it well, "There is no killing without buying and selling." Customs investigators said that smuggling endangered wild animals and plants and their products not only endangers many wild animals and plants, directly endangers the ecological balance, and even some of the smuggled wild animals and plants may also become potential spreaders of diseases due to carrying viruses, endangering people's health. I hope that enthusiasts can cherish every life, rather than "blasphemous" to let them suffer the disaster, it is better to "look at it from a distance", let them be under the blue sky, in the flowers, butterflies dancing, and coexist in harmony with human beings.

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In 1981, China acceded to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES, also known as the Washington Convention) and assumed important responsibilities in the protection and management of the species of wild animals and plants included in Appendices I and II of the Convention. In China, only by obtaining a certificate of permission to import and export issued by the National Office of Import and Export of Endangered Species can the wild animals and plants and their products specified in the CITES Convention be imported and exported. If the above-mentioned items are imported or exported without approval, once seized by the Customs, the parties concerned will be subject to administrative penalties by the Customs at best, and they will be held criminally responsible for violating the criminal law. According to the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, smuggling precious animals and their products, whose import or export is prohibited by the state, shall be punished by fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than ten years and shall also be fined;