North Coast Dudleya smuggler sentenced in federal court

A South Korean national was sentenced Thursday to two years in federal prison for attempting to illegally export Dudleya succulent plants to Asia.

Byungsu Kim, 46, pleaded guilty in September to one count of attempting to export plants taken in violation of state law, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Kim must also pay $3,985 in restitution for expenses related to replanting the stolen plants, which came from remote Northern California state parks and are worth at least $150,000.

In recent years, Dudleya plants have been torn illegally from bluffs along the Northern California coast and sold on the Asian black market.

Kim and two co-defendents drove from Los Angeles International Airport to Crescent City in October 2018. They harvested Dudleya plants from DeMartin State Beach in Klamath, Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park and Russian Gulch State Park in Mendocino County.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Kim told an agricultural official that the plants came from San Diego and used false documentation to ship them from a Compton cargo shipping company to South Korea.

Investigators confiscated the plants in Compton and Kim was arrested in South Africa in October 2019 for similar crimes before being extradited to the United States.

You can reach Staff Writer Colin Atagi at colin.atagi@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @colin_atagi