LOWER EAST SIDE — A Chinatown store owner pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court on Monday for distributing and selling illegal pesticides.
Cheng Yan Huang, 56, admitting to selling more than 2,010 packages of pesticide, including a rodent poison with a Chinese name translated in English as "The Cat Be Unemployed."
Huang was one of 12 people arrested in September 2011 as part of a multi-agency crackdown on the illegal products that caused at least one person to fall ill after mistakenly consuming one of the pesticides.
"Cheng Yan Huang literally peddled poison for profit, exposing untold numbers of people to extremely toxic chemicals in the process," said Preet Bharara, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Huang, 56, faces a up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $25,000.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 14.
Another man, delivery driver Jai Ping Chen, pleaded guilty to similar charges in February.