By Thomas Firestone

Law360 (June 11, 2020, 5:51 PM EDT) --

Tom Firestone

What do "Tiger King" and COVID-19 have in common? In addition to the fact that the COVID-19 quarantine is part of what made "Tiger King" such a binge-watched success, they both highlight the dangers of illegal wildlife trafficking — and the need for Congress to strengthen the tools available to law enforcement to combat this pernicious form of organized crime.

The World Economic Forum estimates that criminal traffic in wildlife is a $23 billion trade.[1] In 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice stated prophetically:

Wildlife trafficking is a transnational crime, with case-after-case exhibiting activities and transactions in multiple nations, including range, transit, and consumer states. The perception that wildlife trafficking is a low-risk, high-reward crime has attracted well-armed, organized criminal groups to this illicit activity. Further, the persistence of porous borders, corrupt officials, weak institutions, and ungoverned spaces provides fertile ground for poachers and traffickers to thrive. We have seen wildlife trafficking become increasingly complex and lethal — to humans and animals — in recent years, with the profits generated from the illegal wildlife trade estimated in the billions of dollars.[2]

According to the Centers for Disease Control, three out of every four new or emerging infectious diseases in people come from animals.[3] This appears to be the case with COVID-19.

While scientists have not yet been able to determine the exact origin of the virus, many experts suspect that it came from bats and passed through a pangolin.[4] Three scientists from the Medical University of Vienna recently published an article providing data in support of the pangolin theory, and identifying pangolins "as carriers and intermediate hosts of coronaviruses."[5]

It is probably not a coincidence that the pangolin is a favorite of wildlife mafias. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "pangolins are threatened by unsustainable and illegal international and domestic trade of their scales, which are used in traditional Asian medicine, and their meat, which is considered a luxury food in many cultures, as well as by habitat loss."[6]

Experts estimate that "more than one million pangolins have been traded illegally in the past decade, making them one of the most trafficked mammals worldwide."[7] In July 2014, the secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES — a multilateral convention designed to protect endangered species that has over 180 signatories including the United States — reported that "[i]llegal trade in pangolin specimens is a growing international problem" that is "escalating at an alarming rate."[8]

The CITES secretariat concluded that "[e]nhanced enforcement efforts aimed at addressing illegal trade in pangolin specimens are urgently needed," and called on parties "to take urgent action to implement measures to combat this growing threat."[9]

In 2016, CITES voted to move all eight pangolin species from Appendix II (which includes species that, although currently not threatened with extinction, may become so without trade controls) to Appendix I (which includes species threatened with extinction, and provides the greatest level of protection, including restrictions on commercial trade).[10]

While "Tiger King" has been characterized as a "kaleidoscope of terrible taste" and "prestige trash,"[11] it is also instructive, especially now, in light of the connection between wildlife trafficking and COVID-19. The eight-part documentary depicts the operations of wildlife traffickers who, the show suggests, use arson, fraud, forgery, money laundering, extortion and murder for hire to further their operations.

The show implies that this is all the work of organized criminal networks — some find the animals, some transport them, some provide financing, and some use intimidation and violence. Earlier this year, the documentary's anti-hero, Joseph Maldonado-Passage, aka Joe Exotic, was sentenced to 22 years after being convicted of two counts of murder for hire, eight counts of falsifying wildlife records in violation of the Lacey Act and nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act, which is the statute which implements CITES in the United States.[12]

In January 2019, the Wildlife Conservation and Anti-Trafficking Act was introduced in the U.S. House. It would, among other things:

• Direct federal agencies to develop plans to reward whistleblowers for information that leads to prosecutions of wildlife traffickers and seizure of their assets;

• Make wildlife trafficking a predicate offense under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and the Travel Act, two of the most powerful statutes used to prosecute organized crime; and

• Make wildlife trafficking and violations for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing a predicate offense for money laundering prosecutions.[13]

The act would treat wildlife trafficking as a pernicious form of organized crime, and give law enforcement the tools needed to combat it. The whistleblower incentives would make it easier to identify traffickers, while the RICO, Travel Act and money laundering provisions would make it easier to prosecute them, seize their assets and impose longer sentences.

Pangolin smugglers, Joe Exotics and the members of their organizations would be treated just like mobsters, with multiple crimes and defendants joined in large cases that capture the full range of their criminal activity. These techniques have worked against the traditional mafia — and they could also work against the wildlife mafia. Unfortunately, the act has languished.[14]

The unlikely combination of a pandemic of unspeakable horror and a "kaleidoscope of terrible trash" have highlighted, like never before, the threat that wildlife trafficking poses to both humans and animals. Now is the time for Congress to act.

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Thomas Firestone is a partner at Baker McKenzie.

The opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the firm, its clients or Portfolio Media Inc., or any of its or their respective affiliates. This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal advice.

[1] Wolfgang Lehmacher, "Wildlife crime: a $23 billion trade that's destroying our planet," Sept. 28, 2016, available at https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/09/fighting-illegal-wildlife-and-forest-trade/.

[2] https://www.justice.gov/enrd/file/830352/download.

[3] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Zoonotic Diseases," available at https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.cdc.gov/onehealth/basics/zoonotic-diseases.html.

[4] Deirdre Shesgreen, "'A loaded gun:' Wet markets, wildlife trafficking pose threat for the next pandemic, USA Today, May 16, 2002, available at https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2020/05/16/coronavirus-wet-markets-wildlife-trade-pose-threat-next-pandemic/5189902002/.

[5] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2020.00939/full.

[6] https://www.fws.gov/international/animals/pangolins.html.

[7] https://www.fws.gov/international/animals/pangolins.html.

[8] https://cites.org/sites/default/files/eng/com/sc/65/E-SC65-27-01.pdf.

[9] https://cites.org/sites/default/files/eng/com/sc/65/E-SC65-27-01.pdf.

[10] "CITES Unites to Change the Fate of Pangolins," Sept. 28, 2016, available at https://www.fws.gov/news/ShowNews.cfm?ref=cites-unites-to-change-the-fate-of-pangolins-&_ID=35818.

[11] Doreen St. Felix, "The Crass Pleasures of 'Tiger King'," The New Yorker, April 8, 2020, https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/04/13/the-crass-pleasures-of-tiger-king.

[12] https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdok/pr/joe-exotic-sentenced-22-years-murder-hire-and-violating-lacey-act-and-endangered.

[13] https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/864.

[14] In December 2019, President Donald Trump signed into law another act, the Rescuing Animals with Rewards, or RAWR, Act of 2019, (H.R. 97), which added wildlife trafficking to the list of criminal activities the U.S. Department of State could target with financial rewards for whistleblowers. However, in contrast to the Wildlife Conservation and Anti-Trafficking Act, the RAWR Act does not apply directly to federal law enforcement agencies, and does not amend RICO, the Travel Act or money laundering statutes.

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