AWI Presents Law Enforcement Award in Special Ceremony

AWI’s Adam M. Roberts recently presented Special Agent Edward Grace of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service with the prestigious Clark R. Bavin Award for outstanding achievements in wildlife law enforcement.  The awards were presented to other recipients during the Twelfth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in Santiago, Chile in November 2002.  Special Agent Grace was unable to attend the Conference and a special ceremony was subsequently held at the Department of the Interior office in Washington, DC.

Special Agent Grace recently concluded the dismantling of a smuggling operation that had brought over 20,000 pounds of endangered sturgeon roe (caviar) into the United States.  The value of the caviar was in excess of 12 million U.S. dollars. Agent Grace also convicted the president of a Russian caviar company for smuggling caviar into the United States. This investigation led to the largest one time seizure in the United States of illegal caviar.  Another investigation involved several individuals who were smuggling hundreds of endangered sea turtle eggs and hundreds of pounds of sea turtle and endangered monkey meat. The meat and eggs were then sold to supply parties and restaurants in the New York City area. The ring leader of this investigation was convicted.  In the last couple years, Agent Grace also broke up an elephant ivory smuggling ring that led to two of the largest ivory seizures in the United States in the past five years. SA Grace seized almost $500,000.00 in elephant ivory that was headed for the United States African Art Market. The two ring leaders from the Ivory Coast were convicted and sent to prison.  Still another investigation led to the conviction of a retail dealer who was selling endangered wildlife specimens and parts. The dealer’s store located in a very affluent shopping district of New York City was selling items such as a chimpanzee skeleton, ash trays made from gorilla feet, gorilla skulls, tiger rugs, stuffed pangolin, chimpanzee skulls, bald eagle parts and numerous other endangered species. This investigation helped bring to light in the United States the growing illegal sale of endangered species skulls and bones to collectors. Agent Grace has also worked with other countries worldwide to help stem the tide in the illegal wildlife trade. In one such example he traveled to Kenya to assist the Kenyan Wildlife Service in an investigation which led to a large seizure of ivory and rhino horn products in Kenya.

For further information on the 2002 Clark R. Bavin Awards presentation, see: http://www.awionline.org/pubs/Quarterly/winter03/0103p6.htm