TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/022089/02208900.051

Text File | 1990-09-17 | 6KB | 93 lines

AMERICAN SCENE, Page 18

Gulf Coast Wetlands, Texas

Wildlife Cops On a Bust

Covert operations defend waterfowl and other wildlife

By Eugene Linden


    It's always a tense moment when Rick Leach breaks the news to
a suspect that he is not a buddy but rather an undercover federal
agent. The people whom the dark-haired, soft-spoken cop arrests are
usually armed, and some take the news badly: at different times,
men have tried to choke or shoot the agent. And so Leach is
cautious as he pulls his rented Taurus into the driveway of the
Friermood hunting lodge in the midst of Texas' vast Gulf Coast
wetlands one clear morning this winter. Only two weeks earlier,
Leach went duck hunting with a guide from the Friermood lodge,
trading lies, and now he is returning as part of a 100-agent task
force that will arrest 23 hunting guides and lodge owners scattered
along the Texas coast for violation of federal wildlife statutes.

    Leach is one of nine full-time undercover wildlife cops working
for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Special Operations branch.
At any given time, an undercover agent might simultaneously
maintain three identities in efforts to deter the illegal killing
or trafficking in wildlife. While the $130 million illegal-wildlife
market pales in comparison with the billions Americans spend on
drugs, undercover wildlife cops find themselves in equally exotic
situations. Undercover stings have infiltrated a smuggling ring
that exported falcons to Saudi royalty; a backwoods guide service
that killed black bears for their gall bladders, which were then
exported to Japan as aphrodisiacs; and a renegade group of Native
Americans who illegally trafficked in eagle feathers. This winter's
major bust, called "the Texas Waterfowl Operation," climaxed a
three-year investigation that exposed rampant disregard for laws
governing the hunting of ducks and geese.

    Special Ops, directed by John Gavitt, a former field agent, was
set up ten years ago in response to increasing illegal hunting and
trafficking in wildlife. Leach, who headed the covert branch for
four years before going back into the field, came to wildlife
enforcement after a stint as an undercover narcotics agent. An
environmentalist, he says, "I didn't want to spend the rest of my
life doing drug buys." While wildlife work might seem more tranquil
than the murderous world of drugs, Leach says wildlife cops often
find themselves in the backcountry on their own, while during
undercover drug buys, "you generally have lots of backup if things
go wrong."

    Agents follow common-sense rules. They choose covers as close
to the truth as possible. In one case, Leach assumed the role of
a dealer in deer and other exotic meats. When he and fellow agents
busted his principal supplier, the man grabbed his pistol, and
Leach found himself wrestling the gun away from his head.

    Special Ops took on the Texas operation because waterfowl
numbers have been plummeting in the face of droughts, habitat loss
and illegal hunting and because a preliminary investigation
uncovered widespread flouting of the wildlife laws. Leach and other
investigators simply masqueraded as duck hunters. Of the 42 hunting
clubs visited, an astonishing 41 violated basic waterfowl-
protection laws. In the course of the operation, agents regularly
documented egregious violations. At one posh club, for instance,
an undercover agent was asked by unsuspecting guides to videotape
a hunt during which 13 hunters slaughtered 204 birds (139 over the
limit for that group). When a guide yelled to spook hundreds of
geese clumped together in a pond, hunters fired blindly into the
rising cloud of birds. After the fusillade, the water was littered
with dead and wounded snow geese.

    At the Friermood lodge, the critical moment comes when federal
agents converge on a confused Blaien Friermood as he turns his
truck into the driveway. While one agent tells the lodge owner that
he is to be arrested, another casually positions herself between
Friermood and the hunters so that no one gets the idea of handing
him a weapon. Before being led away, Friermood explains to the
hunters that one of his guides has been caught violating the law
by an undercover agent. One hunter remarks nervously, "If I were
Blaien, I'd get after the guide that got him in trouble." Hearing
this, Leach tells them, "Blaien's got his own problems," and notes
that this is only part of a big federal bust. Ray Brite, a U.S.
deputy marshal, eases the tension by telling awful jokes.

    With Friermood safely packed off to Houston for arraignment on
misdemeanor and felony charges, Leach heads down the road to check
on another bust before returning to Houston to face the mountain
of paperwork that accompanies an operation of this magnitude.
Leach, Gavitt and the other agents gravitate to their jobs because
of the sense of accomplishment they get from protecting America's
vanishing wildlife. "I used to feel uncomfortable about making
friends with people and busting them, but I'm not out to cause
people trouble; I'm here to protect wildlife," says Leach. Gavitt
notes that many people doing the most damage to wildlife use
sophisticated scams, not easily investigated by overt means. In
these cases, says Gavitt, "covert operations not only bring such
violators to justice but have a ripple effect. Commercial
duck-hunting guides, for instance, will now think twice before
breaking the law."