Subject: CITES Update from the U.S. Office of Management Authority

From: "by way of [email-masked] Mike Quinn" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 1996 18:59:21 +0100

The U.S. Office of Management Authority mailed out the following CITES
     Update yesterday.  We regret that due to the partial Federal
     Government shutdown no Update was sent out during December, 1995.

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                                CITES UPDATE #40
                                  January 1996

Dear CITES Cooperator:

We would like to inform you of the following:

<snip>

LEADERS OF INTERNATIONAL WILDLIFE SMUGGLING RING SENTENCED:  On December 12,
1995, a Federal judge in Los Angeles, California, sentenced two leaders of a
wild bird egg smuggling ring to prison.  The pair were arrested and prosecuted
as part of the U.S. Department of Justice's nationwide crackdown on wildlife
smuggling.  William Arthur Wegner, 45, of La Jolla, California, and Brian T.
Bradley, 28, of New Paltz, New York, were sentenced to 60 and 41 months in
prison respectively for running a scheme that smuggled more than $1,000,000 in
protected wild bird eggs into the United States from Australia.  The Federal
judge also found that Wegner had attempted to obstruct justice by committing
perjury at the trial of a co-defendant last summer.  Wegner must pay a $10,000
fine.

Wegner and Bradley had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges for
their leadership of a nine-year enterprise during which more than 700 eggs of
protected cockatoos were smuggled from Australia to the United States in
violation of numerous wildlife laws including the Lacey Act, a Federal law that
protects wildlife.  Wegner had also pleaded guilty to under-reporting his 1987
income on Federal tax forms.  Once in the United States, the cockatoo eggs were
hatched, reared, and sold to collectors under the guise that they had been
produced by captive parent birds.  The cockatoos sold for between $1,000 and
$13,000 per bird, depending on the species.

In addition to Wegner and Bradley, 13 other individuals have been convicted in
California, Florida, New York, and Montana for their part in the cockatoo egg
smuggling scheme.  From 1983 to 1991, smugglers traveled to Australia each
year during the cockatoo breeding season and removed eggs from nest sites,
often in national park areas.  After several days of collecting, the eggs were
placed in home-made vests which contained pockets for up to 49 eggs.  As the
smugglers left Australia, the vests were worn underneath outer clothing to
prevent detection by Customs authorities.  Eggs which began to hatch during
transit from Australia to the United States were destroyed.  The cockatoo
species smuggled by the group included the rose-breasted (or Galah) cockatoo,
the Major Mitchell's (or Leadbeater's) cockatoo, the sulphur-crested cockatoo,
the slender-billed cockatoo, the red-tailed black cockatoo, and the white-
tailed black cockatoo.  All Australian cockatoos are listed on the CITES
Appendices.

Illegal international wildlife smuggling is estimated to be a five billion
dollar annual industry generating more profit than illegal arms sales and
second only to the world-wide drug trade.

PLANT INSPECTORS FOIL VIOLATORS OF CITES:  In May 1995, a commercial shipment
of 5,450 orchid plants entered the United States from Thailand through the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)
plant inspection station in Hoboken, New Jersey.  The shipment, which contained
seven different CITES Appendix II species of the orchid genus Dendrobium, was
accompanied by an apparent Thai CITES export permit certifying the orchids as
artificially propagated.

Upon its arrival at the APHIS plant inspection station in Hoboken, the orchid
shipment was inspected by one of the APHIS Plant Protection and Quarantine
(PPQ) inspectors.  Two boxes were found to be infested with actionable insects.
In addition, the inspector determined that the orchids, certified as
artificially propagated, were in fact of wild origin.  Importing wild CITES
Appendix II plants using a CITES permit that authorizes the export of only
artificially propagated plants is a violation of CITES.  The 5,450 orchids were
confiscated by APHIS in violation of CITES.  APHIS treated the plants in the
infested boxes and then APHIS worked with OMA to place the orchids in several
volunteer plant rescue centers in the United States.  This shipment represented
one of the largest orchid shipments ever confiscated by APHIS for a CITES
violation.

Sincerely,

Kenneth B. Stansell, Chief
Office of Management Authority

All documents referred to above are available on request from the Office of
Management Authority.  Address correspondence to: U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, 4401 N. Fairfax Dr., Room 420C, Arlington, VA 22203. Telephone (703):
Office of Management Authority (OMA) 358-2095, Fax 358-2280; Office of
Scientific Authority (OSA) 358-1708, Fax 358-2276; Division of Law Enforcement
358-1949; Fax 358-2271.

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     Please be aware that any messages sent to my email address will not be
     able to be answered or forwarded until after the Standing Committee
     meeting (January 30-February 2).  You may prefer to send inquiries via
     fax.  Thank you very much.

            **********************************************
            **    Susan Lieberman                       **
            **    U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service        **
            **    Office of Management Authority        **
            **    4401 N. Fairfax Dr., Room 420C        **
            **    Arlington, VA 22203                   **
            **    Phone: 703/358-2095                   **
            **    Fax:   703/358-2280                   **
            **    email: [email-masked]   **
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