Vanessa Rondeau, the owner of The Old Cavern Boutique in Montreal has been killing and trafficking in endangered species. She was in possession of an endangered 3-toed sloth, 18 crocodile heads and feet, 8 alligator feet, two horseshoe crabs, 30 sea stars, 23 racoon feet, eight African antelope horns, one human skull "with mounted butterflies," four puffer fish and six shark jaws on Wednesday when she attempted to cross the border at Highgate Springs, Vermont.
Rondeau entered the U.S. 18 times between November 2018 and September 2019, mostly at the Champlain, New York, port of entry, including a dozen times between midnight and 2 a.m.., Ryan Bessey, a special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, wrote in an affidavit.
Working undercover Bessey asked Rondeau in a private message in January 2020 if she had any polar bear skulls for sale, the affidavit states. Rondeau offered to sell a skull for $780 and Bessey received it in the mail, he said. Bessey bought another polar bear skull from Rondeau for $711, he said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had also intercepted packages she sent containing skulls from a bird, a weasel, a bat and the skin from a Hartmann's zebra, another protected species, the affidavit states.
The Old Cavern Boutique is a front for illegal trafficking endangered species.
The Lacey Act prohibits the trafficking of items that come from endangered species. read more