'Finch-smuggling kingpin' sentenced in plot to hide birds in hair curlers

The plastic cylinders, a few inches across, are just the right size to smuggle finches. The small birds are commonly smuggled from Guyana into the United States, where they are prized in birdsong competitions, according to prosecutors.Sign up to receive daily headline news from the Ottawa SUN, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.

Ali had participated in birdsong competitions as a child in Guyana and, after emigrating to the United States in 1984, sought out finches and competitions for emotional support, his defense attorney said. Competitions held by the Guyanese diaspora in New York took place on weekend mornings in a park in Queens, where participants and referees gathered around cages to watch two birds sing, according to a 2021 NPR report on the tradition.

In her sentencing memo, Ali’s defense attorney said he was moved by a love of birds, not money, and she included letters from members of several Guyanese and Islamic associations in New York who wrote that Ali had donated generously to community organizations and was “a person of integrity.”

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