2nd best profit making illegal smuggling trade

--------- Begin forwarded message ----------
From: "Wilson, Glenn M." <WilsonG@nima.mil>
To: "'Glenn Wilson Also (Fx)'" <dwarf_warrior@juno.com>,"'Glenn Wilson
too (SF)'" <Triphibious@juno.com>,"'Glenn (Hx)'",<warbeads@juno.com>
Subject: FW: 2nd best profit making illegal smuggling trade
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 08:01:53 -0500
Message-ID: <8B9D41BEE275D3119E7E00805FBE64D3022ADAEA@stlx4>

Scenario possibilities.

Be honest Beth, wouldn't you like to catch some animal/animal product
smugglers and do battle with them?  <grin>

Gracias.
Glenn M. Wilson, Jr.
NIMA SE Asia/Oceania Regional Analyst
Comm:  (314) 263-4670  FAX:  x-4577  DSN:  693-xxxx   red:  3165

"The nice thing about wargames are that lead soldiers don't leave lead
widows or lead orphans."

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Wilson, Glenn M. 
> Sent: Monday, February 26, 2001 7:01 AM
<snip>
> Subject:	2nd best profit making illegal smuggling trade
> 
>
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/audiovideo/programmes/panorama/newsid_1
18
> 5000/1185917.stm
> 
> 
>		Threat to rare species
> 
>		The global racket in the trafficking of rare
>		and endangered animals is bigger than the
>		world's arms smuggling rackets and
>		second only in size to the illegal traffic in
>		drugs. Tom Mangold reports on the impact
>		of the four billion pound a year trade. 
> 
>		There are 71 reptile species on the verge of
>		extinction. The illegal trade in reptiles is
>		playing a ruthless part. According to the World
>		Wide Fund for Nature, we are into the greatest
>		extinction of historical times. 
> 
>		The profit scales are similar to those in the
>		drug trade. But the sentences for those
>		caught are far smaller. 
> 
>		Anson Wong from
>		Malaysia ran the
>		biggest global animal
>		dealer and smuggling
>		operation that has ever
>		been broken. He is in a
>		Californian prison
>		awaiting sentencing.
>		The prosecutors are
>		hoping he will get an
>		exemplary sentence to
>		deter the illegal
>		traders. 
> 
>		Young, cultured, and
>		ruthless, Wong had worked his way to the top
>		of the animal underworld. In Malaysia, Wong
>		owned a private zoo. It was a perfect front for
>		illegal dealing in protected wildlife. 
> 
>		He dealt with creatures protected by an
>		international convention called Cites for rare
>		and endangered species threatened with
>		extinction. Trade in these creatures is either
>		forbidden or strictly regulated. Wong simply
>		ignored the law. 
> 
>		He stole almost extinct Komodo dragons from
>		their islands in Indonesia. It is the world's
>		largest lizard, valued at ?20,000. He dealt in
>		the critically endangered Chinese alligator
>		worth at least ?11,000 on the black market. 
> 
>		Great tortoise robbery 
> 
>		Wong was also involved in the biggest ever
>		theft of precious reptiles. It proved to be his
>		downfall. 
> 
>		The delicate
>		ploughshare tortoise
>		from remote
>		Madagascar is the
>		jewel in the crown of
>		the reptile world. But
>		its beautiful shell has
>		threatened its survival.
> 
>		The ploughshare has
>		been stolen and hunted
>		to the point of
>		extinction. There are
>		less than a thousand
>		left alive, probably
>		insufficient to sustain continuity of the
>		species. 
> 
>		The attempt to run a breeding programme in
>		Madagascar to save the ploughshare collapsed
>		when 75 of them were stolen. The haul was
>		worth one and half million pounds on the black
>		market. 
> 
>		Wong gained access to about 37 of the stolen
>		ploughshares. He offered two of them to
>		PacRim, an undercover business set up by the
>		US Fish and Wildlife Service. 
> 
>		US Federal Agent Ernest Mayer says, "the only
>		way to really address or organise the
>		smuggling, criminal rings that were smuggling
>		the animal in was to set up an undercover
>		business, a sting operation to catch them in
>		the act." 
> 
>		It was known as Operation Chameleon, and
>		Wong was their major target. After a long
>		investigation Wong was lured to a meeting
>		with PacRim and arrested as he stepped off
>		the plane in Mexico. 
> 
>		To date Operation
>		Chameleon has caught
>		26 animal smugglers and
>		traffickers from six
>		countries. All have been
>		successfully
>		prosecuted. But even
>		this huge operation has
>		failed to do much more than set the traffic
>		back for a while. 
> 
>		Losing battle 
> 
>		Ernest Mayer says: "There are many animal
>		species that are not going to survive, they're
>		going to go extinct so I think from that
>		standpoint we're losing." 
> 
>		Although there are international agreements to
>		protect these species, they carry little weight
>		in countries like Cameroon where illicit animal
>		dealing is a fact of life. 
> 
>		Paul Sullivan has
>		broken laws that
>		protect reptiles from
>		being poached and
>		traded to extinction.
>		He says "The trade has
>		benefits for hundreds
>		of people. I make a
>		living and lots of people
>		make a living from
>		something which is a
>		useless item to a
>		person in a third world
>		country." 
> 
>		Sullivan was sent to prison in California in
>		February 2000. He pleaded guilty to several
>		charges of illegally trafficking endangered
>		reptiles to the United States. 
> 
>		Reptiles in demand 
> 
>		In America, the legal trade in live reptiles has
>		increased by 2000 per cent in a mere nine
>		years. It is this demand for unsuitable pets
>		that helps fuel the illegal trafficking. 
> 
>		And that demand is still growing despite the
>		risks involved in keeping these animals, and the
>		risks to the environment. 
> 
>		Animals that are recovered cannot be returned
>		to the wild. They would probably die, or infect
>		other wildlife with their alien Western germs.
>		Essentially, they are biologically dead. 
> 
> 
> Gracias.
> Glenn M. Wilson, Jr.
> NIMA SE Asia/Oceania Regional Analyst
> Comm:  (314) 263-4670  FAX:  x-4577  DSN:  693-xxxx	red:  3165
> 
> "The nice thing about wargames are that lead soldiers don't leave lead
> widows or lead orphans."
> 
> 
--------- End forwarded message ----------

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