A look at the illegal trade in wildlife

Posted on: March 15, 2017 | Bob Frye | Comments

These are some of the snapping turtles collected in an investigation into the illegal trafficking of wildlife in Pennsylvania.
Photo: PA Fish and Boat Commission

Thankfully, they’re not always the brightest in the bunch.

We’re talking criminals here.

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission deals continually with people who try to exploit fish, reptiles and amphibians. Some gather them for their own use. Some gather them to sell, either to collectors or food markets.

It’s those in the latter category the commission targets most.

“Our focus continues to be large-scale, long-term commercial violations, those people making a living off our resource. Those are the ones that have the biggest impacts,” said Tom Burrell, an assistant chief in the commission’s law enforcement bureau.

Luckily, more than a few of those people give themselves away.

“Almost every case that we do now has some sort of social media involvement,” Burrell said.

The commission, using fake accounts, sets up meetings as potential customers that lead to arrests.

Officers have undergone training in that regard. They’ve also started using equipment that can find hidden devices in suspect’s homes.

“The people who are in to a lot of criminal activity, particularly with the internet, they don’t use the laptop that’s sitting in their living room,” Burrell said. “They have one that they secure someplace that you can’t find it when you do a search warrant.”

The commission has tools that search out those devices, though, he added.

As to what exactly criminals are dealing in, the list is varied.

These are rattlesnakes collected during an investigation.

Burrell cited one case that began with a routine traffic stop. A state trooper pulled over a van, registered in Michigan and being driven by men from New York, on I-80. There were 29 large snapping turtles in the back of it.

Suspicious, he called in the commission.

An investigation – called Operation Chinatown – that began in 2014 and wrapped up just late last year revealed the crime.

A man working as the produce manager in a Dallas, Pa., grocery store was collecting turtles and cleaning them in the store after hours. Another man in Tunkhannock was buying them, then selling them in turn to the Michigan-based owner of the van.

That individual was then selling them for the Oriental medicine trade, Burrell said.

The investigation, carried out with the help of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, found that the same people were dealing in illegally-taken black bears, bear gall bladders, timber rattlesnakes, beavers and more.

A number of those involved are working through plea deals right now, with at least one facing a felony count, Burrell said.

In all, the commission’s special investigations unit handled 52 investigations, resulting in 72 summary charges, 24 misdemeanors and eight felonies. Seven other cases were turned over to other agencies.

Corey Britcher, head of the bureau of law enforcement, called it a “banner year.”

“Hopefully in 2017 we’ll continue cracking down on some of the same violations,” Britcher said.

There will assuredly be no shortage of cases, Burrell said. If anything, the commission could take on a lot more if it just had more people. Cases where someone might be advertising on Craigslist one snapping turtle for sale sometimes, for example, go unprosecuted because the commission is tied up with bigger cases.

“We’re basically limited to how many we can handle,” he said.

Bob Frye is the everybodyadventures.com editor. Reach him at 412-838-5148 or bfrye@535mediallc.com. See other stories, blogs, videos and more at everybodyadventures.com.

Share This Article

Shop special Everybody Adventure products today!