Operation Falcon (USFWS operation)

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Operation Falcon was a 1982-1984 sting operation conducted by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Canadian Wildlife Service to entrap falconers and falcon breeders by using undercover wildlife officers posing as falconers to entice falconers (often law-abiding falconers) to violate either the Migratory Bird Act or federal falconry regulations that were (and still are) highly subject to a wide range of interpretation.

1 Overview
2 Canadian Convictions
3 US Convictions
4 Inconsistencies in USFWS press releases
5 Impact on Falconry in the US
6 Operation Colorado (2004)
7 References

[edit] Overview

Operation Falcon's purpose was to expose and disband a reputedly vast multi-million dollar international smuggling operation shipping North American birds of prey (specifically peregrine falcons and gyrfalcons) to the Middle East.

A small falcon smuggling operation was discovered in Canada, consisting of Glen Luckman (the ringleader), John Slaytor (a falconer and falcon breeder), and Jeff McPartlin (a US falconer, formerly convicted gyrfalcon smuggler, and undercover paid informant for the USFWS).

Ironically, the largest illegal falcon smuggler was the USFWS, who authorized McPartlin to trap, trade, give, sell, and smuggle wild gyrfalcons and peregrines--an act illegal under the Migratory Bird Act, of which they were pursuing the alleged falcon smugglers (McKay: 200-210).

Of the numerous falconers, raptor breeders, and raptor rehabilitators alleged to have committed crimes, there were only 5 felony convictions as the cases fell apart one by one in court when the plea-bargin star witnesses' (Russek and Luckman) testimonies proved to be largely fabrications created in the interest of escaping conviction--not to mention the extent to which McPartlin and the USFWS went to entice and entrap people, which eventually brought the issue before the Supreme Court.

The USFWS and their undercover informant, McPartlin, saw the over 438 indictments made in this sting operation be dismissed one after the other on the grounds of entrapment, heresay, and unreliable testimonoes (McKay: 209).

Paul McKay, in his book "The Pilgrim and the Cowboy", summarizes that "[g]iven these facts, it is difficult not to conclude that Operation Falcon was largely a [public relations] mirage--a straw man secretly set up and then knocked down by U.S. and Canadian wildlife agencies" (209).

Operation Falcon created a lasting rift resentment between federal wildlife agencies and falconers, raptor breeders, and raptor rehabilitators that lingers to this day.

[edit] Canadian Convictions

Luckman and a small-time partner from the US, Bruce Russek, plea-bargined for immunity and received it in exchange for their testimonies. Unfortunately for the prosecution, both Luckman and Russek's stories of other people's smuggling activities were shown to be falsehoods--crafted to make themselves appear to be victims and to get a lighter sentence for themselves--to the point where the judge, prior to sending the jury off to deliberate, told the court that Luckman and Russek had been proven "liars and unsavoury characters." With these two critical witnesses undermined, all other evidence was deemed circumstantial and not a single arrest was made (McKay: 171-200).

Luckman and Russek served no time. Luckman was fined $23,000--half of what he had made by selling gyrfalcons supplied to him by the USFWS via their undercover informant, McPartlin. Luckman even boasted while under oath that he had actually made money by being arrested once the sales of falcons (given to him from the USFWS via McParlin for resale to the Middle East) were factored in (McKay: 171-200).

John Slaytor, the middleman and Middle East connection for Luckman, was the only person in the smuggling ring that did not plea bargin for immunity. Instead, he abandoned his wife and children and fled the country to the Middle East where he worked as a falconer breeder and trainer for royalty. As of 1989, he was still wanted in Canada (McKay: 210).

In a bit of bitter irony, the Mounties had also arrested a Canadian Wildlife Service raptor biologist working for them, Dave Mossop, as a conspirator in laundering wild birds through a gyrfalcon breeding project. (At the time, Mossop was widely considered the most prominent and respected authority for raptor behavior and biology in all of Canada.) The head of the investigation claimed that no one could breed gyrfalcons and that the young falcons being legally sold from the project therefore must have been stolen--with Mossop, who was overseeing the project from the federal side of things, being guilty of aiding in the papering and banding and smuggling of these birds. Mossop, when he took the stand, produced over 100 academic publications on how numerous breeding projects in the US and Canada had been successfully breeding falcons, demonstrated that the Peregrine Fund organization had bred and released over 1,400 peregrine falcons between 1970 and 1986, and how the breeding project he'd been supervising had managed to breed over 20 gyrfalcons in 1985 while he was being accused of lying that the same facility could not possibly have produced 13 birds in 1983 (McKay: 197-200).

In short, the prosecution's case for the Canadian side of Operation Falcon was a complete and unmitigated disaster.

[edit] US Convictions

US Conviction claims vary depending upon the source, and even the USFWS--who conducted the operation--provides inconsistent claims.

The USFWS originally claimed at the time of the sting in a 1984 press release that 77 US falconers had been arrested in Operation Falcon ([1]).

A 1988 press release from the USFWS contradicts this by claiming just 30 arrests ([2]).

The largest conviction claim for Operation Falcon is made by the Union for the Conservation of Raptors, which claims "over 300" people were charged. It should be noted, however, that this organization is run by Hari Har Singh Khalsa (aka Alan Parrot), who also played a role in Operation Falcon as an unreliable informant who made claims that a vast number of falconers, falcon breeders, and raptor rehabilitators were engaged in smuggling operations (McKay: 112-124). Coincidentally, the majority of these persons accused by Khalsa also largely happened to be competing against him in attempting to win a bid for legally harvesting wild gyrfalcons from Canada. (See here for more information about Khalsa/Parrot's attempts to create an international wild falcon trading monopoly.)

Regardless of the varying claims quoted by the USFWS and others, the overwhelming majority of arrests were dismissed, found to be entrapment on the part of the USFWS and McPartlin. There were only five felony convictions (out of about 4,000 licensed falconers in the US).

One of the people accused of committing a felony was Dr. James Doyle, a man that treated over 400 injured raptors per year at his non-profit avian hospital, and which was pivotal in subsequent appeals (which went all the way to the Supreme Court) on grounds of entrapment. McPartlin had offered Doyle wild peregrines, which Doyle would not accept unless they were properly banded and had the proper paperwork--thinking that if they were wild peregrines, the state would arrest McPartlin if he was foolish enough to try and get the proper documents. McPartlin and the USFWS then banded the birds and fabricated documents (with the aid of the state) that made the birds legal to accept--if one did not know where they came from--and Doyle accepted these properly banded and papered birds. Doyle's defense lawyer stated at the trial, "I found this to be an incredible tale. A tale of seduction and inducement and snaring and entrapment. This can't be what we want in this country" (McKay: 204-205).

Other entrapment schemes involved asking other falconers to "look after" one of his birds for a short while--then placing an illegally taken bird into the hands of falconers who thought they were simply doing a fellow falconer a favor by temporarily bird-sitting.

This entrapment extended to (or perhaps was targeted at) a number of prominent North American falconers, who had earlier ostracized and derided McPartlin after his earlier conviction for attempting to smuggle gyrfalcons to the Middle East in the 1970s.

And thus, after a two-year undercover operation and over $2 million dollars in expenses, wildlife officials essentially pardoned two of the three members of a small-time smuggling ring that the USFWS largely supplied with the majority of falcons from via their undercover informant, McPartlin, who illegally harvested the gyrfalcons and peregrines (without Canada's knowledge of such activities).

[edit] Inconsistencies in USFWS press releases

A number of inconsistencies appear in the USFWS press releases surrounding Operation Falcon, exaggerating actual figures--intentionally or unintentionally. It is worth noting that during the early 1980's, Ronald Reagan was cutting the budget for the USFWS and the peregrine falcon had become the "poster child" for endangered species in the US (because of DDT that caused eggs to break).

The largest smugglers (the Ciesielskis) did not actually smuggle wild-caught falcons, but hybrid falcons that had been legally bred in captivity. Their crime was not getting proper export papers, not the illegal wild falcon harvest that Operation Falcon was intented to expose (McKay: 208).

The USFWS claimed that the falcon smuggling ring was a multi-million dollar operation, yet the largest dealings (with the Ciesielskis) accounted for only $112,000 (McKay: 207-208).

The USFWS claimed that as many as 400 birds had been illegally taken from the wild. When questioned as to where the USFWS obtained this figure, they claimed it was a Canadian estimate. When the Canadian Wildlife Service was questioned, they claimed the figure came from the USFWS (McKay: 207-208).

[edit] Impact on Falconry in the US

No US smuggling ring was ever discovered, though the entrapment methods used by the informant and undercover agents resulted in some falconers being charged with mostly minor crimes, typically wanting to acquire a bird for personal use--not for resale to the Middle East as was the supposed premise behind Operation Falcon. Technically, the largest single-man smuggling operation was McPartlin, the USFWS's undercover informant.

Individual falconers that had been accused of crimes ("accused of" but not "proven") had their birds confiscated (over 100 birds in total) and many were never returned--largely because the overwhelming majority of confiscated raptors died while in USFWS custody, presumably because the agency did not have the proper facilities, experience, resources, nor personnel to handle and care for so many birds of prey. Many falconers who did eventually get their birds back largely reported that the birds had been in poor shape (or injured/crippled) or otherwise mistreated by inexperienced handlers.

The simultaneous, nationwide inspection of falconers by federal agents and the confiscation of birds created a lasting sense of mistrust between some US falconers and USFWS agents. Furthermore the confiscation of falconers birds, without proof or being charged with a crime, is currently being questioned in the falconry community as being a violation of the Bill of Rights under the context of illegal search and seizure.

These actions and other overzealous efforts of wildlife law enforcement agents, in some instances, harmed legal breeding projects and legally practicing falconers' reputations. In some instances, birds were confiscated from falconers who had not been charged with a crime--and many of these birds were never returned.

Bird confiscation by federal agents also brings into question whether or not a falconer can own a bird--be it a wild-caught bird he has possessed legally for over 20 years or one that was bred, born, and raised by the breeder--particularly since captive-bred birds can be legally sold/given/traded to other falconers or breeders. The current interpretation appears to be that regardless of circumstances, the federal government "owns" all raptors in the US save for imported exotics.

The alleged vast international raptor smuggling ring was never found and may never have even existed. The small operation run by Luckman, Slaytor, and McPartlin was operating at a loss by the second year of operation and likely would have gone under.

Operation Falcon, unsurprisingly, caused a great deal of strife in the falconry community. Paranoia regarding wildlife officials is still rampant to this day within the US falconry community.

[edit] Operation Colorado (2004)

Operation Colorado (also referred to as "Operation Witchhunt") was a 2004 sting operation conducted by wildlife officials in Colorado to inspect every falconer in the state simultaneously.

Coincidentally (or perhaps not), Colorado is the state where Operation Falcon originated with a few USFWS agents who believed McPartlin's claims that there was a vast falcon smuggling operation in the US and Canada.

Also connecting back with Operation Falcon is the re-emergence of Hari Har Singh Khalsa (Union for the Conservation of Raptors) who appears to have either sparked or fanned the flames of suspicion among federal agents by claiming (once again) that a successful falcon breeder (and thus a competitor) was supposedly illegally harvesting falcons. (See here for Khalsa/Parrot's accusations of wrong-doing.)

No falconer was arrested in Operation Colorado/Witchhunt, though several cases were "still pending a decision" on whether or not there was actionable evidence to even go to trial two years after the sting operation. However, several raptors were confiscated on the spot and never returned, despite obvious disputes between USFWS and state wildlife agents over the interpretation of poorly written and vague falconry regulations--and whether an offense had or had not been committed--between wildlife officers at the scenes of these inspections. As with the delays in the filing of any actual charges, the results (if any) of Operation Colorado are still pending.