Clifford L. Duke, Jr., Louis Glenn Ballard and Vic Buono v. United States

This is a criminal case in which there was laid bare a tremendous traffic in the smuggling of psittacine birds into the United States from the Republic of Mexico. Irrespective of the merits, it is a sordid story of intrigue, double-dealing and feuds among the participants, with treacherous interludes and escapades.

Parrots, parakeets and, broadly speaking, any bird with a hooked beak are denominated psittacine birds. There is a quarantine against the importation of such fowl into the United States. How-ever, there appears to be a vast importation of these birds here. It is not the custom in this commerce to pay any duties on psittacines. Indeed, it would appear from the record that there is no known instance of such an impost having been paid.

In general, the participants in this traffic were as malodorous as the commerce therein itself. The testimony was furnished by co-laborers in the vineyard, who were characterized by one of the defendants as:

The indictment was in ten counts. Three separate conspiracies were charged (in Counts I, IV and VII). Five counts charged smuggling (II, V, VIII, IX and X). Two counts charged certain defendants with knowingly receiving, concealing…