He was caught by a fluke.
A natural-gas salesman from Queens was nabbed yesterday for attempting to smuggle 16 live endangered fish through customs in his suitcase — and it was all because the airline lost his luggage.
US Fish and Wildlife Service agents arrested Chee Thye Chaw, 47, at his home in Elmhurst for bringing in the highly sought-after Bonytongues, a violation of the Endangered Species Act.
Asian cultures value the 5-inch to foot-long fish as good-luck charms that can protect owners from death. They sell for $5,000 to $10,000, and are kept as pets.
Chaw was returning through JFK from visiting family in Malaysia on April 5, 2009, but his medium-sized blue suitcase never appeared at the carousel.
The next day, a customs agent, performing a random check on lost luggage, popped the bag open and found 16 small, red-and-gold freshwater Bonytongues packed in individual bags of water insulated in Styrofoam, the feds say.
The fish survived because airliners’ baggage compartments are pressurized and warmed by heat leaking in from the passenger cabin.
Dressed as a deliveryman, Interior Department Special Agent Paul Chapelle went to Chaw’s apartment, where he lives alone, on Tuesday. Chaw confirmed it was his bag, the agent said.
Officials would not say why the agency waited so long after confiscating the fish — some of which have since died — to confront Chaw and file charges.
In any case, when the agent told Chaw that he was with Fish and Wildlife, Chaw refused to answer questions without his lawyer.
But before the agent left, Chaw told him that he thought that it was “bull – – – -” that the fish is endangered when “there are thousands of them,” court papers say.
He also claimed that he brought in all 16 fish for his own use, and not to sell them.
Four more of the protected fish were found in Chaw’s apartment.
“He’s an otherwise upstanding citizen who’s been fully cooperative with whatever he’s been asked to do,” said his lawyer, Deron Castro.
Castro represented Chaw in 2004, when he was forced to pay an $850 fine for smuggling eight of the fish into the US.
Chaw, who works at Greater Easter Energy, was released on a $100,000 bond posted by his boss, company owner Allen Brenner.
If convicted, Chaw faces up to 33 months in the tank.