Conservationists, law enforcement team up to infiltrate wildlife crime syndicates -- Read and share our stories!
Photo by iStock.com/Utopia_88 |
On June 12, Moazu Kromah, a Liberian citizen codenamed “Kampala Man,” was arrested in Uganda. The very next day, Kromah found himself standing in a federal courthouse in New York City as a judge read the charges against him—among them, conspiracy to sell rhino horns and elephant ivory valued at $7.4 million. While a handful of high-level animal parts traffickers have been arrested before, experts believe this case represents a paradigm shift in how governments can combat illegal wildlife trade: by aggressively infiltrating and dismantling criminal syndicates, and by building strong cases to ensure the syndicate’s members are brought to justice. "We’re not reacting to a seizure or a tip on an incident, we’re identifying criminal networks and proactively going after them,” says David Hubbard, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) special agent in charge of the international operations unit. “I think this is truly a game changer for the wildlife trafficking world." |
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