'Finch-smuggling kingpin' gets prison time in New York

NY’s ‘finch-smuggling kingpin’ gets prison time for bird trafficking

Imsaf Ali was ordered to serve 366 days behind bars after he was stopped at John F. Kennedy Airport in January 2022 while trying to get finches from Guyana past customs.

Man caught trying to smuggle finches for birdsong competitions jailed in New York

Insaf Ali was previously arrested in 2018 carrying finch-stuffed hair curlers in his socks at John F Kennedy Airport and says he is now going to "stay away from the birds".

‘Finch-smuggling kingpin’ gets prison time in New York

By JENNIFER PELTZ (Associated Press) A man who repeatedly admitted scheming to smuggle finches from Guyana into New York for birdsong competitions was sentenced Thursday to a year and a day in prison. It was Insaf Ali’s second time being sentenced in a Brooklyn federal court for a crime related to bird trafficking, and he vowed it would be his last. “I’m going to stay away from the birds,” Ali pledged in a video he submitted to the court, “becau…

‘Finch-smuggling kingpin’ sentenced to prison for bird trafficking into US

Insaf Ali smuggled songbirds in hair curlers from Guyana to New York when JFK airport authorities discovered the ruse

'Finch-smuggling kingpin' gets prison time in New York

By JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press A man who repeatedly admitted scheming to smuggle finches from Guyana into New York for birdsong competitions has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison. Insaf Ali was stopped at John F. Kennedy Airport in January 2022 with two packs of hair curlers that smugglers use to slip the small birds past customs officials. He pleaded guilty last summer to conspiring to import wildlife illegally. He’d gotten proba…

‘Finch-smuggling kingpin’ sentenced for bird trafficking in New York — for the second time

It was Insaf Ali’s second time being sentenced in a Brooklyn federal court for a crime related to bird trafficking, and he vowed it would be his last.