Gulf Coast Wetlands, Texas Wildlife

• Share

It's always a tense moment when Rick Leach breaks the news to a suspect that he is not a buddy but rather an undercover federal agent. The people whom the dark-haired, soft-spoken cop arrests are usually armed, and some take the news badly: at different times, men have tried to choke or shoot the agent. And so Leach is cautious as he pulls his rented Taurus into the driveway of the Friermood hunting lodge in the midst of Texas' vast Gulf Coast wetlands one clear morning this winter. Only two weeks earlier, Leach went duck hunting with a guide from the Friermood lodge, trading lies, and now he is returning as part of a 100-agent task force that will arrest 23 hunting guides and lodge owners scattered along the Texas coast for violation of federal wildlife statutes.

Leach is one of nine full-time undercover wildlife cops working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Special Operations branch. At any given time, an undercover agent might simultaneously maintain three identities in efforts to deter the illegal killing or trafficking in wildlife. While the $130 million illegal-wildlife market pales in comparison with the billions Americans spend on drugs, undercover wildlife cops find themselves in equally exotic situations. Undercover stings have infiltrated a smuggling ring that exported falcons to Saudi royalty; a backwoods guide service that killed black bears for their gall bladders, which were then exported to Japan as aphrodisiacs; and a renegade group of Native Americans who illegally trafficked in eagle feathers. This winter's major bust, called "the Texas Waterfowl Operation," & climaxed a three-year investigation that exposed rampant disregard for laws governing the hunting of ducks and geese.

Special Ops, directed by John Gavitt, a former field agent, was set up ten years ago in response to increasing illegal hunting and trafficking in wildlife. Leach, who headed the covert branch for four years before going back into the field, came to wildlife enforcement after a stint as an undercover narcotics agent. An environmentalist, he says, "I didn't want to spend the rest of my life doing drug buys." While wildlife work might seem more tranquil than the murderous world of drugs, Leach says wildlife cops often find themselves in the backcountry on their own, while during undercover drug buys, "you generally have lots of backup if things go wrong."

Agents follow common-sense rules. They choose covers as close to the truth as possible. In one case, Leach assumed the role of a dealer in deer and other exotic meats. When he and fellow agents busted his principal supplier, the man grabbed his pistol, and Leach found himself wrestling the gun away from his head.