Wildlife Smugglers Willing to Test Airport Security

Wildlife smugglers will do whatever is necessary to get their illegal products into the United States; including trying to bypass airport security measures.

Baggage handlers and inspectors of incoming passengers at Los Angeles International Airport probably have some good stories to tell about what they see people trying to bring into the United States.

Mixed in with the usual items such as laptops, lip gloss, and eye shadow there will also be found the sea turtle egg, rare butterflies, and elephant tusks. On one extreme occasion, a passenger was even found with some pygmy monkeys stuffed in their pants.

Because wildlife smuggling is the 2nd largest black market operation in the United States, these wildlife smugglers will take any measure necessary in order to grab a piece of this roughly 10 billion dollar a year industry.

With California being the most populated state in the U.S., this often makes California airports some of the busiest in the country. Unfortunately, it also makes California a prime spot for smugglers to try and bring illegal animals, and animal parts, into the U.S. This also makes LAX, the Los Angeles harbor and the San Francisco harbor some of the most popular entry points for smugglers to ply their trade.

Joseph O. Johns, the chief of the environmental crimes section in the United States attorney’s office in Los Angeles, has seen his office grow from one employee to eight employees over the last eight years because of the rapid increase in cases involving smugglers trying to sneak their poached products through Los Angeles entry points.

Mr.Johns's office has prosecuted cases ranging from the illegal importation of rare animals and plants to the killing of endangered species. One of these cases involved four people trying to market endangered dragon fish.

Another case in 2002 had a Palm Springs man tying to bring in Asian leopard cats through an airport. These rare cats were stuffed into his backpack. This is the same man who had the two lesser slow lorises, also known as pygmy monkeys, stuffed into his underwear. Mr.Johns thinks this man was successful in having these monkeys down his pants for the 18 hour flight from Asia because it is probably not airline policy to have their employees staring at a man's crotch.

However, if you think these are only individual people trying to make some big money, you may want to stop and think again. Mr.Johns points to a case were a pastor at a church, the Holy Spirit Association for Unification of World Christianity, in San Francisco was taking part in the illegal harvesting of baby leopard sharks from the San Francisco Bay. This pastor was using the money he received from the selling of these sharks to finance his ministries. One of these ministries included taking parishioners on a sea trip to learn about “ocean ethics".

The smuggling of wildlife not only breaks international treaties; these smuggling operations can also have unintended consequences for wildlife habitats in the United States.

“You might understand why we don’t want piranhas released in the Mississippi River,” Mr. Johns said.

And few people wish for the job of removing monkeys from underwear.

Read more about this story in the NY Times