New HSI Unit Takes Aim at Wildlife Trafficking
The Department of Homeland Security has created a new unit dedicated to fighting wildlife trafficking within Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
The unit will support 14 investigators and analysts after $7.5 million in funding was appropriated in the FY 2023 Homeland Security Appropriations bill. The unit aims to investigate criminals who traffic in lucrative wildlife schemes, such as peddling ivory from rhinoceros horns and using animals as exotic pets.
The legislation called the money a “critical investment to protect the economy, environment, and to assist in disrupting the flow of resources that support other illicit conduct” adding that the new unit with coordinate with the public and private sectors to “enhance investigative expertise, analytical support, and to develop the next generation of investigators to investigate and disrupt this heinous crime.”
The team will work on crimes involving animals, fish, plants, and timber and some of the work will be undercover, according to Elliott Harbin, senior adviser to the new unit. Harbin tells National Geographic that the unit will also work to unravel money laundering and other financial crimes, which are often connected to wildlife trafficking.
A Growing Threat
The Conservation Strategy Fund says that illegal wildlife trafficking generates an estimated $7 billion to $28 billion in criminal gains a year, making it the world’s fourth largest internationally organized crime, after narcotics, human trafficking, and counterfeit products.
The Wildlife Conservation Society estimates that illicit wildlife trafficking earns between $7.8 and $10 billion a year, with the illegal timber trade estimated at $7 billion a year, and the unregulated fisheries trade as high as $9 billion a year.
Wildlife trafficking is increasingly a national security issue too. Edward Grace, assistant director of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) Office of Law Enforcement told National Geographic that “Illegal money and resources obtained from wildlife trafficking have been used to fund terrorist organizations.”
In addition, officials fear the wildlife trade could bring in new diseases. To help, FWS offered to detail one of its agents to the new unit.
“Our years of experience investigating wildlife crimes and [Homeland’s] resources combined will allow both our agencies to tackle wildlife trafficking in a more coordinated and formidable response,” said assistant director Grace.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is trying to sharpen its focus on the issue, launching a new social media campaign designed to make “wildlife traffickers an endangered species.”
DHS came under fire for wildlife trafficking procedures in a 2022 report from the DHS Office of Inspector General. In the report, the Inspector General said that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel inconsistently recorded data on wildlife encounters, and HSI special agents did not always complete or accurately record actions and data on wildlife trafficking.
The report noted that “DHS may be missing opportunities to curtail the spread of zoonotic viruses and disrupt transnational criminal organizations that use the same networks for other illicit trafficking, such as narcotics, humans, and weapons.”