Posts Tagged ‘Trafficking’
The WildLife: Life of a Wildlife Special Agent, Sheila O’Connor, Part I
US Fish and Wildlife Service Special Agent Sheila O’Connor reveals what it’s like to work in wildlife law enforcement. In the first of a two-part interview, Special Agent O’Connor tells “The WildLife” host Laurel Neme about her adventures stopping wildlife crime—from tarantulas to elephants. (Part 2 next week will focus on what it takes to…
Read MoreMongabay.com: Frogs and friends at risk from booming global wildlife trade
By Laurel Neme, special to mongabay.comSeptember 08, 2010 Alejandra Goyenechea, International Counsel at Defenders of Wildlife and Chair of the Species Survival Network’s (SSN) Amphibian Working Group, spoke with Laurel Neme on her “The WildLife” radio show and podcast about the global amphibian trade. This interview originally aired February 8, 2010. Assistance for this article was provided…
Read MoreThe WildLife: Geoduck Trade, Craig Welch
Craig Welch, Seattle Times environmental reporter and author of Shell Games: Rogues, Smugglers, and The Hunt for Nature’s Bounty, talks about wildlife trafficking in Puget Sound and the massive illegal trade in geoducks (pronounced “gooey-duck”) clams. He tells “The WildLife” host Laurel Neme how geoducks are more than fashionable seafood by providing an entrée into the…
Read MoreMongabay.com: Mexico has big role in the illegal parrot trade
By Laurel Neme, special to mongabay.com May 30, 2010 Juan Carlos Cantu, Director of Defenders of Wildlife’s Mexico office, spoke with Laurel Neme on her “The WildLife” radio show and podcast about the illegal parrot trade in Mexico and how his innovative research into the trade was used by the Mexican Congress to reform that country’s Wildlife Law to…
Read MoreCulture Shocks
Culture Shocks (40 min radio interview), aired April 24 (episode #1394) Illegal wildlife trafficking is worth an estimated $20 billion a year behind drug and human trafficking; Animal Investigators documents this black market business. http://www.cultureshocks.com/shows/2009/04/24/laurel-neme/
Read MoreEagle Feathers Illegally Sold
Feathers from protected bird are a coveted item in many parts of the world. While Animal Investigators details a case of feathered body costumes of Brazil’s Amazon Indians, feathered artifacts from Native Americans in the United States are equally as coveted. In March 2009, four men were arrested by federal fish and wildlife agents after an investigation…
Read MoreBear—The High Stakes of Bear Gall Bladder Trafficking: Homicide
In October 1991, New York Police Department Detective Tommy Dades stepped around the spatters and followed the crimson trail to the first bedroom. His eyes couldn’t help but be drawn to the body: a middle-aged Korean-American man, throat slashed, sprawled across one of the beds. A pillow covered the victim’s head, presumably to let his…
Read MoreBear Bile Trafficking Stopped in Los Angeles, California
On March 27, 2009 the press reported that a South Korean woman living in LA illegally imported nearly a kilogram of bear bile via mail into the United States for traditional Chinese medicine. One kilo of bear bile has a street value of about $40,000, and is worth more than a kilo of cocaine. This…
Read MoreOperation Shellshock Breaks Up Reptile Smuggling Ring in New York
On March 19, 2009, New York’s state Department of Environmental Conservation announced one of its largest and most extensive undercover operation into illegal wildlife trafficking that resulted in the arrest of 18 individuals on 14 felonies and 11 misdemeanors for poaching, smuggling and illegally selling protected reptiles and amphibians. The two-year undercover investigation, called “Operation…
Read MoreBrazil Macaw Trafficking Ring Broken Up
Big news broke in mid-March about the largest wildlife trafficking bust in Brazil ever. Jorge Pontes, head of Interpol in Brazil, contacted me about the bust of a huge macaw smuggling ring. On Friday, March 13, 2009, Brazilian Federal Police and Interpol arrested 102 people in 9 states. Interpol issued red notices (wanted) for 6…
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