[tptacek]

This comment is unresponsive to its parent, which directly addresses the summary of the case you've provided.

We know that there are people who believe someone was given an 8 year sentence for shipping a small amount of lobster tails in violation of Honduran law and for storing them in bags and not boxes. That's the headline of Silverglate's argument.

What wasn't clear was that the offenders had hauled fifteen million dollars of illegal lobster tails, deliberately selecting out-of-the-way ports with under-staffed inspectors, using bags (unlawfully) to conceal the amount of their take that violated regs, as part of an elaborate scheme that involved processing companies in Honduras and, at one point, a smuggling route through Canada.