The brownstone office looked down on William Street in
downtown Sydney a good brisk walk from Circular Quay, if you had the time and
inclination, or a five minute trip by car, but certainly not in peak hour, a
meeting was taking place. Five people sat around the large conference table.
Members of a special undercover squad with rather unkept hair and stern looks
all watched the man at the head of the table.
‘The situation is out
of hand; Rottnest has lost its parrots and we are catching stupid people
carrying one bird, reptile or snake, but not the organisation. God help us if
these idiots ever tried harder. Who is running this show and how many are we
missing. Our endangered species list grows by the day and it isn't enough that
we slaughter our own animals indiscriminately but these bludgers are walking
through our airports with rare parrots, snakes whatever all rolled up in
magazines.
What I ask you is going out in bulk by ship by plane, by bloody UFO’s
for god’s sake. It’s a well organised criminal organisation with international
tentacles and lots of corruption’.
He sat back exasperated.
Throwing his pen on the table he cast about at the concerned faces, ‘can
someone have an idea – please’.
The air outside grew colder as tufts of mist off the road
wafted past as the recent shower wet the windows steaming off the bitumen, shadowing the mood in the room.
‘These jokers have to be taught that here in Australia they
can’t do what they like, we have laws, crappy ones at best but in the main our wildlife laws are strict
- in a sense they are, and yes’, he answered with
one raised eyebrow ‘we have lost more wildlife in 200 years than in all the
years before, we must stop the rampant destruction or our kids will have to
visit zoos just to see a parrot – blast, I love the little buggers coming in of
a morning to my bird bath and seeder, they make my morning – I don’t want that
to stop, but some bugger is causing this on a wide scale and I want his ass on
a plate –now!’
Sam sat back, he agreed but passion wouldn't do it, human,
on the ground intelligence was needed, but where to start, where was the
operation, where. Ideas were thrown around but a starting point was needed, undercover
work had used four squads, twenty men and nothing apart from several tourists
had been caught. They needed a break and soon or parrots would disappear in one
lifetime and a little girl would keep asking her father the same question –‘where
have all the parrots gone Daddy’.
It wasn't just the parrots or the wildlife wallabies, tree
kangaroos, quokkas and platypus were being taken, even from legal private zoos.
The scope of the crimes were unknown but they were extensive and told of a
large scale operation, well maintained and sourced and must be done with help
from authorities all on the gangs payroll, that was the conclusion drawn from
the meeting.
Sam didn’t have a clue –where to start – where?
The meeting had ended and disgruntled men and women trooped
out frustration their companion.
‘Sam, before you leave how about a word? The large man, over
six foot, an ex Aussie rules player he had been given this job to curb the
export of Australian animals and the violence that followed when people got in
the way.
‘What’s brought this on’, Sam asked.
His Boss tossed a loose lock of hair brushing it away the
eyes travelled to the window and back to Sam –‘Can you keep a secret’?
‘Of course but-’,
‘No buts this is confidential and stays that way. Okay
someone up top way up top had an episode –something has rattled him, something
big. No I know but it’s a secret he had more of an epiphany – let’s call it a
moment, something showed him that what we are doing is wrong and more emphasis
should be put on saving the animals, in short not just the environment but the animals which are an important part –just
as important as the sea life.
You see if the whales
are lost the sea dies. Our unique ecology depends on our native animals for
soil, plant and mineral conservation. The land will die if the animals disappear
and the fauna –plants will die out and our way of life will suffer –evaporate
was the word he used, evaporate just like that’, as he clipped his fingers. ‘No
one has ever seen him so spooked’.
Christ’ said Sam, ‘what
got to him?’
’Don’t know but he is
telling treasury that more money is needed now – and they agree, it’s a bloody
miracle, more money for agents from the treasury, but there it is.’
‘Now Sam, you caught the top man in the recent pedophile case and I am looking to you to get answers. the illegal wildlife trade is
third only to that in drugs and human trafficking in scope and value; numbers
in the order of tens of billions of dollars are at stake according to the
Global Financial Integrity organisation, and CITES agrees that there are billions involved. The team has great agents and I am not playing
favourites, but I have to depend on someone to get answers or my little girl
will never speak to me again.
‘Well’, said Sam, ‘in the report black cockatoos, parrots
and wallabies were highlighted. So because of your daughter I am going to
concentrate on the birds and wallabies, basically the birds. International air
traffic is well controlled maybe a cargo plane or my bet is a ship, comes in
with legal cargo, goes out with mixed crates, and our stuff will be in some of
them, not all as customs would be on to it, but trying to sort through all the
cargo is a demons job. So I’m betting on the seas, so off to see somebody and
I’ll travel up the east coast and stop when I get a sniff’.
‘Good but remember get backup if you get a bite, we will
monitor your locator chip and your calls should use the ‘warrigal’ identity,
okay’.
Sam smiled, ‘sure Boss and don’t worry we’ll find them’.
‘Yes that’s what worries me, if this is as big as I think
you could be in for a shit-storm’
Sam wandered down the stairs to the basement where his
turbo-charged Subaru was parked. He climbed in, checked the fuel level and headed
for the Harbour Bridge and the road north, the hunt was on.
Sam pulled into a rest stop and pulling his laptop out he
connected the system to global-net and checked his mail.
‘Nothing much but the reports indicates that these jokers
are locals with professionally built cages –unusual right I’ll ring Colin and
see'.
After talking to his friend in wildlife section of Dept. of
Environment Colin informed him that they were scared and not of him, something
about the delivery and they didn’t mind going to the lockup.
‘Jeeze Sam whatever you’re into watch yourself, these almost
wet themselves at something’.
He signed off and called another contact at the
police station in Taree.
‘Good day Jock, yeah I was talking to Colin, the jokers with
the cages, parrots mainly but something about it, they were scared stiff
according to Col. That case of yours, you think they were supplying on a
regular basis, and there were what 14 cages, a bit much for a local operation
don’t you think'.
‘Yes - what I thought
local guys have become organised and it look as if they trap and then deliver
to somebody, not on-sell as they use to. ‘I’m going to set myself up on the
coast and do some snooping, do the usual, a bum on the lookout. Righto I’ll
call in and then go over what you have, and move up towards Port, any contacts
there, right see you soon’.
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