> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Frog-feasting fish sales land grocer in hot water
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/frog-feasting-fish-sales-land-grocer-in-hot-water/
- Published: 2004-05-15T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:18:37.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: local, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Freaky fish a big seller*

*By LAUREN BONIFACIO Special to the Daily Press*

Apples: 49 cents a pound. Broccoli: 99 cents a pound. Slithery, snake-headed fish that breathe air, walk on land and feed on frogs, crawdads, birds and other fish: $14.99 a pound.

A man was pulled from his Koreatown supermarket on Friday morning and arrested for allegedly selling the dangerous, frog-eating northern snakehead fish alongside produce and poultry in his store.

The northern snakehead species (or Channa argus) is native to parts of Asia and Africa, and is illegal in the United States because of its potential to kill off other animals if released into local waters. Without any natural predators in the U.S., adult snakeheads feed on other fish, crustaceans, frogs and, sometimes, birds and mammals.

“The (snakeheads) breathe air, they can crawl on land and they can actually crawl from one river to the next,” Johns said. “That makes them almost impossible to eradicate.”

Even selling at such a steep price, the fish generated close to $23,000 in sales at the Assi supermarket in Koreatown, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated during their investigation.

In a criminal complaint filed earlier this week, grocer Sung Chul “Daniel” Rhee, 46, was said to have labeled the snakeheads as “sea bass” or “bass, fresh water fish” and hidden them in larger shipments of fresh food sent from South Korea in June 2003.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph O. Johns said Rhee was selling the snakeheads live as food.

“I don’t know what they taste like,”

Johns conceded, adding that snakeheads are considered a delicacy in the Korean community, especially valued by new mothers for their medicinal properties.

But the Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have come down hard on Rhee, a Glendale resident.

“Our concern here in California is that some enterprising rocket scientist will purchase a live snakehead fish, maybe a couple, breed them and release them,” Johns said.

With their “voracious appetites,” Johns said, snakeheads have decimated fish populations in Maryland, Wisconsin and Florida after having found their way into U.S. waters.

Intent on stopping the illegal imports before they wreak havoc in California, federal authorities charged Rhee with three counts of illegally importing live injurious fish into the country. If convicted, he could spend 15 years in prison for his grocery gaffe.

Rhee was expected to make his initial court appearance Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 15, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/051504.pdf?ref=smdp.com)