Wow! Suprise raid at Columbus Ohio Swap meet!

[TribalGecko]

Just thought I would share this experience. Today was the monthy Hamper reptile swap meet in Columbus Ohio. We traveled 3 hours to get there and when we arrived (at 9am opening time) the whole place was under lockdown from the suprise raid of the Ohio Wildlife cops and nobody could go in or out. No customers were in there but none of the vendors could leave and they kept it closed until 2pm (it closes at 3pm), it was a real bummer! The Feds came in too. All the vendors that had questionable items had cops dispatched to their houses for a complete search. I believe everyone without their vendors licenses or proper permits and such where fined big time. A friend of ours was missing when we finally got to go in. Some guys were taken away by police. I heard that there were narcs planted in the place for a year, getting to know the vendors and stuff, pretending to be vendors themselves. I only heard that second hand though. I guess the thing that brought it to a head was the fact that some lady had sold some pairie dogs that turned out to have that Monkey Pox virus. The up side is that I did get my new darling baby beardie I wanted, plus a cute little hognose, a very nice mex mex kingsnake and a pair of pygmie mice! What a day!! Anyone else there by chance?

[Frankie]

They done that at the Lee Watson meet in Ill not to long ago.The Indianapolis meet is tommarow it'll be interesting to see what happens there had the monkey pox thing over here in Indiana also. That would really Suck to drive that far for that to happen glad you got what you wanted though.

[TribalGecko]

Yeah I was happy with what I got but it was sad to see over half the tables left empty. Last time we went the place was packed with people, this time only the diehards hung in there all day. Alot of people had special orders for frozen rodents, prepaid and they were there to just pick up their stuff and they couldn't get in to get their orders. Everybody was really PO'd. I heard they found some poisonous stuff and there was some issue of selling baby tortoises too small too.

[LISA127]

TribalGecko,
what part of ohio are u in?

I wanted to go to the show. Glad I didn't

[TribalGecko]

I am from Cleveland and they have this show every month. We try to go every month if we can. There is always something to spend money on ;)

[LISA127]

Hey! I'm from Cleveland, too. I'm from the east side. Don't see too many neighbors on this site. Do u ever go to the NOAH shows?

[TribalGecko]

I used to go years ago, now I don't even know where they have them. I am also east of Cleveland, in Euclid, but originally from Willoughby.

[LISA127]

I'm really your neighbor then. I'm in Wickliffe! Originally from Mayfield Hts.

[TribalGecko]

Wow, small world. Where are the NOAH meetings at now? I remember they were somewhere on the west side at one time.

[TribalGecko]

Hey just went on the website for NOAH. There is a showcase on July 13! Im there!!

[LISA127]

I know there is one on the 13th. I want to go. But they aren't usually as good as the Hamper shows.

[TribalGecko]

Oh, well not sure what is going to happen with the Hamper shows now. News this morning said 50 people were arrested at that show yesterday. I don't think he was in trouble though, I think I saw him when we finally went in. What kind of stuff do they have at the Noah showcases?

[LISA127]

I've only been to one or two. I think it focuses mostly on snakes. Not much in the way of turtles, tortoises, or lizards. Except for leopard geckos. It may be different, though. Last time I went was a couple of years ago.

[BWSmith]

Yes, Hamper did get busted. It was preplanned and they already had search warrants in hand for for certain vendor's homes. They arived to search homes at the same time the raid was happening. 50 people in 3 states and 3 more states are under investigation. This was not just showing up to see if anyone was not kosher, they had lists of people, specific warrants, and information provided regarding each dealers sales at previous shows when questionable animals were involved. They are cleaning house.

[TribalGecko]

Drat! I wonder if that means no more Hamper shows.

[BWSmith]

this information comes from vendors at the show.

[The_Omen]

Yahoo News story. (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ibsys/20030629/lo_wews/1677951)

[Lisa]

Pity the honest people had to suffer too.

[LILCREEP]

i read the article , now my concerns
if they rerelease the animals what are the odds of those animals surviving ?
how do they know where the animals were captured ?
these are my concerns what are others views?

[BWSmith]

by releasing the animals into the wild, not only are the released animals at risk, but the entire herp population in that area. Who knows what little diseases captives are carrying. Could have had a BP next to one in a deli cup and a virus floats over. What happens when you release it? You can extirpate an entire population.

[TribalGecko]

I don't think its a good idea to re-release them either. Especially if they are captive born. Are they talking about endangered species from Ohio or from all over. I thought the problem was that people were selling stuff indigenious to Ohio IN Ohio and didn't have the permits for them. I didn't realize it was rare and endangered stuff.

[BWSmith]

remember that we are only getting the media's version. Those that were busted have not spoken yet. Things may not be the way they appear.