South Korean National Sentenced to Two Years in Prison for Attempting to Illegally Export to Asia Poached Wild Succulent Plants From Del Norte County
A South Korean national was sentenced today to 24 months in federal prison for attempting to illegally export to Asia live Dudleya succulent plants worth at least $150,000 that he and his co-schemers had pulled out of the ground at remote state parks in Northern California.
Byungsu Kim, 46, was sentenced by United States District Judge George H. Wu, who also ordered him to pay $3,985 in restitution to the State of California for expenses related to replanting the stolen plants after his arrest. Kim pleaded guilty in September 2021 to one count of attempting to export plants taken in violation of state law.
On October 11, 2018, Kim and co-defendants Youngin Back, 47, and Bong Jun Kim, 46, traveled by car from Los Angeles International Airport to Crescent City, California. From October 14 to October 16, Kim and the co-defendants harvested numerous Dudleya plants from DeMartin State Beach in Klamath, California, and from Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park.
Kim knew the taking of the Dudleya plants was unlawful. He had conducted internet searches on his smartphone for “poaching succulents” and “dudleya” and had read a press release regarding the arrest and convictions of three other Dudleya poachers.
On October 22, 2018, Kim and the co-defendants traveled from Northern California to a nursery in Vista and unloaded the Dudleya plants that they had poached during the previous week. The following day, the men traveled to Russian Gulch State Park in Mendocino County, where, wearing backpacks and using hand-held radios to communicate, they pulled additional Dudleya plants out of the ground before returning once again to the Vista nursery.
Prior to the plants’ shipment, Kim scheduled an inspection with a county agriculture official at the Vista nursery and falsely told her the government-issued certificate necessary for the plants’ exportation should list 1,397 Dudleya plants (259 pounds/117.5 kilograms) for export to South Korea and that the “place of origin” of the plants was San Diego County.
The defendants then transported the plants to a commercial exporter in Compton, to whom Kim intended to present the fraudulently obtained certificate so the Dudleya plants could be smuggled to South Korea. When the defendants left, local law enforcement executed a search warrant at the cargo shipping company and found 3,715 Dudleya plants in boxes that were labeled “Rush” and “Live Plants.” These were the plants the defendants had pulled out of the ground from public lands in Northern California.
At the time that Kim and the co-defendants engaged in the illegal conduct, they did not have a scientific permit nor a federal permit that would allow them to harvest Dudleya plants. Kim also admitted to being the scheme’s organizer.
Although California law enforcement officials had confiscated Kim’s passport following his arrest on state charges relating to his October 2018 conduct, Kim fraudulently obtained a new South Korean passport in January 2019 by falsely claiming to the South Korean Consulate in Los Angeles that he had lost his passport.
In May 2019, soon after Kim learned of the federal criminal charges pending against him in this case, he and Back fled to Mexico on foot through the Tijuana-San Ysidro border crossing. Using his fraudulently obtained passport, Kim then flew with Back from Mexico to China, and then flew from China to South Korea.
Kim was arrested in South Africa in October 2019 for charges related to a similar scheme in which he illegally collected plants from protected areas in that nation to export to South Korea. Kim pleaded guilty to the criminal charges in South Africa and was extradited to the United States in October 2020 after spending a year in custody there. He has remained in federal custody since October 2020.
“[Kim’s] willful criminal conduct in October 2019 was not an isolated event: he had carried out the same scheme repeatedly in California,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “[Kim] had traveled to the United States more than 50 times since 2009. Customs records show that he was travelling for succulent-related purposes and often with tens of thousands of dollars in cash (sometimes declared, sometime not) and fake phytosanitary certificates.”
Bong Jun Kim pleaded guilty in July 2019 to one count of attempting to export plants taken in violation of state law. He served four months in federal custody and was released in October 2019 after Judge Wu imposed a sentence of time served.
Back remains a fugitive.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, San Diego County’s Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the California State Parks investigated this matter. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided significant assistance in securing the defendant’s extradition from South Africa.
Assistant United States Attorneys Matthew W. O’Brien and Dennis Mitchell of the Environmental and Community Safety Crimes Section prosecuted this case.
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Personally, I’m glad there are consequences for ripping up and stealing these plants.
What a lenient sentence. Everybody knows that the moment he gets out of jail he’s going to go Harvest more illegal plants and sell them to be able to fund his trip back to Korea.
And if you try to deny this then you’re just ignorant.
I think you’re wrong about that. He most likely will be deported directly from prison after serving his time. Hey but what do I know I am ignorant.
Totally agree! This guy is Asian though, you won’t get any social justice warriors here.
I think you’re wrong. He will most likely be deported directly from FEDERAL prison. But what do I know I am ignorant.
No worries about being ignorant. This kym guy, got a new visa for another country altogether, while in America. I don’t know how that could even be possible. He would not be able to do this without preying on people’s ignorance.
No.
He obtained a new South Korean PASSPORT from the South Korean Consulate in LA, NOT a Visa.
A Visa to be in the US can only be provided by the US Dept of State.
Deportation is most likely, very likely. Straight from the pokey to the airport.
So there, I mean like fur sure.
Unfortunately at the end of the press release it states he is still a fugitive which means he is not in custody, he is wanted.
Yes. Our laws. And alleged punishment. Are laughable. Unless you happen to be a native citizen. Who has worked to accomplish things and have aquired. Valueables. Then you will. Be fined and penalized back into poverty. Pay the corrupt system in the name of justice!!!!!
Some beautiful examples, seen on Saturday at an undisclosed location.
What a disgrace! Two years?!
He should have to serve as long as it take for the plants to grow back.
now i know why our local tweaks were stealing these off peoples front porches a few years ago. there’s a black market for them. supply and demand.
What makes these plants so valuable. This is incredible…
That’s my question. Do they want these to grow for food? Do these not grow in South Korea? Intro-ing non-native plants anywhere seems like a stupid/bad idea.
Beats me. They grow like weeds. My Grandmother had a whole garden bed of them. When she thinned them she would give them away.
Maybe because certain varieties are much rarer than others, especially in other countries?
One person’s abundant native is another’s rare import. The plants are attractive and obviously require little care, as your grandmother proved. South Korea is a prosperous democracy so people buy stuff. What I don’t get is why they don’t propagate plants from seeds or cuttings and have a legal commercial, domesticated supply. End of problem.
Sucs to be him.
😂
Maybe deport him, but “accidentally” drop him in North Korea instead.
Good thing they caught him in Southern California…
The biggest Fish and Game violators always seem to be asian. Without naming nationalities, the most outstanding arrests for abalone, turbin snail, urchins, and plant life are asians. God knows what they want them for! They are still swarming the rocks down here, for anything that moves!
they used to cover the beach all over the north jetty, and the county had them removed, so what’s the big deal if one person went through all those schemes and loopholes to accomplish something nobody else thought of, and for a plant, the county didn’t want anyway.