I am not guilty

At present time, Mr. McNab has served almost two and one-half years of his eight year and one month sentence in a jail located in Arkansas. Mr McNab was incarcerated by the U.S. government immediately after sentencing because he is a foreign national (Honduras) and that the government feared he was a flight risk. All of this in spite of McNab faithfully attending all matters relative to his case including; travelling back and forth from Honduras for Hearings, Motions, Pretrial, Trial, and Sentencing.
His Lobster Tails to this day are purchased by Red Lobster Restaurants through an exporting company in Honduras.

Note: None of the defendants had previously been charged with a crime.

The Seizure:

What went wrong? Why the seizure? Why all of a sudden after five years of doing business in the same manner did NMFS show up to seize McNab's Lobster on February 3, 1999 in Bayou La Batre? After all, for each shipment arriving in the United States with Lobster, U.S. Customs and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has to be cleared and be approved ("May Proceed") before taking possession. On some occasions, FDA would even request samples for testing which, among other things, on several voyages Lobster Tails samples were submitted to FDA, for analysis of salmonella. This day, February 3, 1999, was different, NMFS got involved for inexplicable reasons and prevented us from offloading the Lobster. National Marine Fisheries Services NEVER in the 5 years of us doing this business in the exact same manner did NMFS ever get involved, only FDA, U.S. Customs, and Immigration.
HOW DOES SMUGGLING AND MONEY-LAUNDERING BECOME CHARGES?

The Alleged Crime Honduras' Objection and Result:

Six months of investigations and holding the vessel Caribbean Clipper ransom at Bayou La Batre, the U.S. Government finally figured out what they were going to charge us with. The four defendants were charged with Lacey Act Violations, which says, "Fish and Wildlife law permits the government to indict individuals for importing "fish or wildlife taken, possessed, transported, or sold in violation of … any foreign law." In other words, break the law of a foreign country (in this case Honduras) and you will be indicted in the United States. There was one big problem, HONDURAS INDICATED THAT NONE OF THEIR LAWS WERE VIOLATED! Please refer to Honduras' Attorney General, Dr. Sergio Zavala Leiva's letter below to John Ashcroft:

John Ashcroft, Attorney General
(Letter from Dr. Leiva, Attorney General of Honduras to John Ashcroft, Attorney General of the United States).
AttorneyGeneralHondLtr.pdf 228 k (Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals Brief from Honduras - amicus curiae) AttyGenHond-Constitution.pdf 6.58 meg
Furthermore, rather than a civil suit for a first-time offense the government took the route to charge criminal proceedings against us in order to trump-up the charges so that eventually they were able to bring in; money-laundering, smuggling, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice charges. Through the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines this drove the sentences from 97 to 121 months in the case of three defendants, and two years to another defendant. At the top-end, defendants must spend eight years and one month behind bars and after release, an additional three years probation! (These sentences are longer than some drug cases). This does not include monetary fines and forfeitures or, substantial legal fees. Please bear in mind that the "crime" is for Lobsters Tails which are classified as a non-endangered species. Lobsters do NOT appear in the government's endangered species list.

Government Evidence Exposed:

Anonymous Fax:
The government through testimony of their various officials, including Special Agents of National Marine Fishery Service collectively have said, "If it were not for the anonymous fax ( click on copy here) that this case would never have been tried in court." The fax was sent from Kinkos (office store), Coral Gables, Florida on February 3, 1999 to NMFS, Titusville, Florida. It indicated, among other things, that out of the 70,000 lbs of Lobster Tails on board, 30,000 lbs were illegal (less than 5.5" tail length. Wrong again,

After the government analyzed the shipment it was shown to have only 2.5 percent of Lobster Tails with a length shorter than 5.5", and not 30,000 lbs as the Anonymous fax indicted.

However, this statement does not jibe with court testimony, because a NMFS official in Niceville, Florida spoke to a U.S. Customs official in Mobil, Alabama about the vessel Caribbean Clipper on January 25, 1999 - a full eight days before the actual seizure! The defendants reason that NMFS made a request to Customs to approach a local judge requesting that he issue an Order of Seizure. With the Order Seizure assured, the only thing missing was Probable Cause. Does the anonymous fax foot that bill?

Why would the government maintain that the anonymous fax is what "triggered" the investigation which eventual led to criminal charges, while on the other hand, NMFS investigation had already started eight days prior to seizure ( January 25, 1999 telephone call between NMFS and U.S. Customs and, at that time, there was no anonymous fax until February 3, 1999 )?