NEW YORK: Federal prosecutors charged a Concord woman with ties to an unidentified Middlesex County export business with conspiring to help smuggle goods, including ivory and coral jewelry, to China.
Carla Marsh, born in 1957, was charged with conspiracy, making a false wildlife record, smuggling from the United States and aiding and abetting. Prosecutors allege she “repackaged and shipped wildlife items from the United States to Hong Kong with documents that falsely described the contents and value of the wildlife.”
The total value of goods illegally shipped exceeded $700,000, the government states.
Emails included in charging documents appear to show Marsh coaching an alleged co-conspirator on ways to ship items with minimal chances of detection by customs inspectors. One item her alleged co-conspirator wanted help with was a rhinoceros head, but it’s unclear from court documents whether she was able to take care of it for him.
In another email, Marsh allegedly wrote: “I’ll send the Ivory to the address in Hong Kong … if we send it express mail through the post office, it’s only somewhat trackable and if it gets lost, it’s almost impossible to track. However, it’s less expensive than UPS and does not get scrutinized quite as much as customs and packages do going through UPS … have a safe journey back to China. I hope all the items arrive safely.”
And in another email, an alleged co-conspirator of Marsh’s named Jin Jie Yang asks an employee of a Texas auction house to help conceal the nature of goods the auction house was sending her. “Maybe you don’t need to say it’s ivory, just say it’s wooden carving or some other material. Then we don’t need the paper.”
