Man convicted of smuggling iguanas in his fake leg

A Long Beach man trying to illegally transport rare iguanas has fallen to the long arm of the law.

Jereme James, 34, of Long Beach, was found guilty Thursday on two federal charges related to bringing three rare iguanas into the U.S. from a nature preserve in Fiji in 2002. Prosecutors said he brought the reptiles into the U.S. by hiding them in a special compartment he had constructed in his prosthetic leg.

James was convicted on one count of concealing and one count of possessing the endangered animals, Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said in a statement. He was acquitted on one count of smuggling. James is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge Manuel Real on July 14, facing a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

During a three-day trial, prosecutors attempted to show that James stole three hatchling Fiji Island banded iguanas (Brachylophus fasciatus) and brought them to the United States in violation of federal and international law. The iguana faces extinction and is protected under an international treaty .

After receiving a tip that James possessed the reptiles, prosecutors said, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service opened an undercover investigation.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, James told an undercover agent that he sold a trio of Fiji Island banded iguanas four years ago for $32,000. After a series of meetings with James, Fish and Wildlife Service agents executed a search warrant at James’ house last July and found the reptiles.

As for iguanas, they'll end up in a breeding program in the U.S., officials said.

Today Gagarin became the first human to travel into space

On 12 April 1961, Gagarin became the first human to travel into space in Vostok 3KA-2 (Vostok 1) and return. His call sign in this flight was Kedr (Cedar). During his flight, Gagarin famously whistled the tune "The Motherland Hears, The Motherland Knows". The first two lines of the song are: "The Motherland hears, the Motherland knows/Where her son flies in the sky". This patriotic song was written by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1951 (opus 86), with words by Yevgeniy Dolmatovsky.

There are speculations in the media that from orbit Gagarin made the comment, "I don't see any God up here." There are, however, no such words in the full verbatim record of Gagarin's conversations with the Earth during the spaceflight. In a 2006 interview a close friend of Gagarin, Colonel Valentin Petrov, stated that Gagarin never said such words, and that the phrase originated from Nikita Khrushchev's speech at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, where the anti-religious propaganda was discussed. In a certain context Khrushchev said, "Gagarin flew into space, but didn't see any God there". Colonel Petrov also said that Gagarin had been baptized into the Orthodox Church as a child.

While in orbit Gagarin was promoted "in the field" from the rank of Senior Lieutenant to Major, and this was the rank at which TASS announced him in its triumphant statement during the flight.[citation needed]

Gagarin being safely returned, Nikita Khrushchev rushed to his side and Gagarin issued a statement praising the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as the "organizer of all our victories". Khrushchev saw Gagarin's achievement as a vindication of his policy of strengthening the Soviet Union's missile forces at the expense of conventional arms. This policy antagonized the Soviet military establishment and contributed to Khrushchev's eventual downfall.

After the flight, Gagarin became an instant, worldwide celebrity, touring widely with appearances in Italy, Great Britain, Germany, Canada, and Japan to promote the Soviet achievement.

In 1962, he began serving as a deputy to the Supreme Soviet. He later returned to Star City, the cosmonaut facility, where he worked on designs for a reusable spacecraft. Gagarin worked on these designs in Star City for 7 years.

Gagarin became Lieutenant Colonel (or Podpolkovnik) of the Soviet Air Force on June 12, 1962 and on November 6, 1963 he received the rank of Colonel (Polkovnik) of the Soviet Air Force.