The former Mountie that federal prosecutors have called one of the “most prolific wildlife criminals ever prosecuted in this country” is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Bangor for his role in a narwhal whale tusk smuggling conspiracy.
A year ago, Gregory Robert Logan, 60, of Woodmans Point, New Brunswick, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to launder money and nine counts of money laundering in federal court in Bangor.
Under Logan’s plea agreement, charges related to the actual smuggling of the tusks across the border are to be dismissed after the sentence is imposed by U.S. District Judge John Woodcock.
The retired member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police admitted to smuggling about 300 narwhal whale tusks, valued by federal prosecutors at between $1.5 million and $3 million, into the United States, where he shipped them to buyers outside Maine.
Logan was sentenced by Canadian prosecutors on smuggling charges to eight months of probation that included four months of home confinement, according to court documents. He also was ordered to pay a $380,000, the highest ever imposed in that country for wildlife smuggling.
He was turned over to American authorities by Canadian officials March 11, 2016, at the Calais border crossing after being wanted in the U.S. for more than three years. Logan has been held without bail since then at the Somerset County Jail in Madison.
Assistant U.S. Attorney James Nelson, who is with Environmental and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., has recommended Logan be sentenced to seven years and three months in federal prison. Defense attorney Kaylie Folster of Bangor has asked that her client be sentenced to to time served, about 18 months, and be sent home, where he faces jail time for not paying the fine imposed by a Canadian judge.
Under the plea agreement, no fine will be imposed by Woodcock.
Logan is the third man convicted in the conspiracy in Maine. The other two were Americans.
Logan obtained the tusks legally in Canada and sold them on the internet to collectors living in the United States. He then concealed them under his truck and in a hidden compartment in a trailer he pulled behind the truck and crossed the border without the required permits and paperwork, according to court documents. The buyers then sold them to others in the United States.
Logan mailed the tusks to customers from the Bangor FedEx office according to court documents. He had buyers send payments to a post office box in Ellsworth and deposited the money in branches of Machias Savings Bank.
A narwhal is a medium-size whale native to Arctic waters.
Narwhals are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and they are covered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. It is illegal to import parts of the narwhal into the U.S. without a permit and without declaring the parts at the time of importation to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The only exception is if the owner can prove the tusk was obtained before 1972.
The male narwhal’s ivory tusk spirals counterclockwise from its head and can be as long as 8 feet, according to National Geographic. Scientists have speculated it is prominent in mating rituals, perhaps used to impress females or battle rival suitors. They are sought after by collectors for their uniqueness and beauty.
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