Man convicted of trafficking sharks kept in his basement

A man who kept sharks in a pool in his upstate New York basement has been convicted of trafficking wildlife.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation and the attorney general’s office say Friday that Joshua Seguine, of LaGrangeville, pleaded guilty to illegal commercialization of wildlife. He’ll be sentenced in September.

The 38-year-old Seguine was stopped by authorities in Georgia in July 2017 when he was transporting five live sharks in the back of his truck. Investigators found Seguine had offered sharks for sale online under the name Aquatic Apex Life.

Investigators searched Seguine’s home and found an 18-foot-diameter (5.7-meter-diameter) pool containing seven 2- to 4-foot-long (half-meter- to 1.2-meter-long) sandbar sharks, a protected species. They also found three dead sharks.

The rescued sharks are now at the New York Aquarium in Coney Island.

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