The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) recently announced the results of a highly-coordinated, undercover, international operation to combat the sale of protected animal species online.
Officers across 16 states, three Federal agencies and three Asian countries participated in the August 2012 operation, which was known as Operation Wild Web, the FWS said Thursday.
Game wardens from Texas made a large contribution to the operation, according to the Houston Chronicle, which reported that the state led the nation in the operation. Nearly half of the 70 FWS special agents were based out of the Lone Star State.
"We assigned 30 game wardens and led the nation in charges filed, including 51 state and federal cases," said Grahame Jones, Texas Parks and Wildlife law enforcement chief of special operations.
Wild Web, which took place across the 14-day period from Aug. 8 - Aug. 22, 2012, resulted in 154 "buy/busts" in the United States., including 30 cases involving federal wildlife crimes and 124 for violations of state wildlife laws.
Through a contribution from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN), authorities were able to expose the online trafficking of protected birds, as well as the sale of tiger and leopard pelts. Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia held their own task forces in-country in addition to cooperating with the U.S. operation.
Edward Grace, FWS deputy assistant director for law enforcement, said the broadly-coordinated effort was essential to the success of the operation and that such efforts must continue to further disrupt wildlife trafficking on the Web and elsewhere.
"Our message is clear and simple: The internet is not an open marketplace for protected species," Grace said.
Wildlife and wildlife products seized during Operation Wild Web included the pelts of endangered big cats such as Sumatran tiger, leopard and jaguar; live migratory birds; sea turtle shells and sea turtle skin boots; whale teeth; elephant ivory; migratory bird mounts; walrus ivory; and other items, the FWS reported. The intercepted transactions involved more than $60,000-worth of wildlife contraband.