A man prosecutors call“ one of New York’ s finch-smuggling kingpins” got a year and a day behind bars for his last bird-trafficking bust. - Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS
A man prosecutors call “one of New York’s finch-smuggling kingpins” got a year and a day behind bars for his last bird-trafficking bust. Insaf Ali, 62, isn’t a simple bird courier, he’s the boss, federal prosecutors said, and he refused to change his ways, despite being nabbed at Kennedy Airport in 2018, and the 2021 arrest of one of his minions. But the Bronx resident contended that his lifetime of bird smuggling isn’t about the money — it’s about his enduring love for finches, or towa towa, and the role they play in Guyanese culture. “His need to have these specific birds to train, sing with...
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