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OK, people, listen up. Here we go. This is Nature's
Secret Service, the podcast that puts you in
the room with the men and women of wildlife law
enforcement. I'm Ed Newcomer, your host. And
today, our guest is Sean Mann, former special
agent with the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Sean and I were actually classmates at the Federal
Law Enforcement Training Center, the Academy
for Federal Agents. So I've known him. We knew
each other our whole careers. And he was a special
agent for the US Fish and Wildlife Service between
2002 until his retirement in 2024. So Sean, thank
you for joining us. It's great to have you here.
I really appreciate you coming on the show. Yeah,
it's awesome to be here. Good to see you. Yeah,
same. Good to see you too. I do have to say I
want to give you a compliment right off the bat.
You know, you have a background you were in the
army for a long time, right? Yeah, how long were
you in the army? 23 years that's 23 years and
you did you know tours in starting in I think
Somalia, right you were in Somalia I was in Africa.
I was I was all over the place. Yeah Yeah, I
know you did Afghanistan for a while. You were
a drill sergeant You have a long career, you
know, but what the compliment I'm gonna pass
you is when you and I were at the Academy together
You know, I overall thought the Academy was fun.
I think you did too. I had a great time when
we went to the law enforcement training center
together to be agents. But of course, you know,
in that setting, there's always stressful days,
there's hard days or days you're just sick of
the instructors. But you, I mean, I don't remember
a day of you ever being in a bad mood. And I
have to be honest with you, you were always like
a source of levity, you know, encouragement,
You know whether it was at the dining hall and
you'd crack a joke and make everybody laugh or
whether it was during some training exercise
where we were stressed out one I remember in
particular was our our boat operating training
where we had it was kind of stressful for me
because I hadn't done that before oh yeah, and
you just made made everybody laugh and you you
always pointed out the the fun side of all of
it and I you know, I just I'll never forget that
about you and It's not something you normally
associate with a guy who was a drill sergeant
in the U .S. Army. Well, I think I probably hit
it well, because I, at least during the Academy,
was stressed every day. Were you? Oh, God, yeah.
And it was, and I became even more stressed when,
if you recall, one of our classmates had failed,
I think, legal one. Yes. And, and then I was
trying to help that individual study. And it
wasn't until that moment that I realized when
he revealed to me that, well, if I fail this,
then I'm gone. That's my safety net. And I was
like, what do you mean your safety net? And he's
like, Sean, you, you only get to fail one test.
Right. And then if, and then, then you're done.
And then that's when I really started to stress
out because. I didn't quite realize or maybe
I hadn't been paying attention that, you know,
I had left being a wildlife inspector and, you
know, and I loved being a wildlife inspector.
But I always wanted to be an agent without question.
And that's when I really started to stress out
because I realized like, shoot, I didn't realize
that if you fail one of the major exams, you
know, I thought you get a redo, but I thought
you got to redo every time. You only get one
redo. You get one. And oh my gosh, I, I panicked
and Oh my gosh. Yes. You didn't show it. You
never showed it. Well, I think, you know, I think,
well, like you who did a lot of undercover work
in your career. I, I, I did as well. And I think
that was one of the things that probably helped.
When you do undercover work, you can't show that
stress. You've got to hide it. You can't show
those stressors that affect you. You've got to
have some way of deflecting it or hiding it or
masking it. Mine, a lot of times, is humor, or
you've got to just embrace those things, knowing
yourself and just rolling with it. But yeah,
no, I was until until we got to stabs, you know
the special agent basic school for our portion
of it with Fish and Wildlife Service I I relaxed
a little bit until we got to the waterfowl ID
portion Which I could tell you Donald was a duck
And that was it. Yeah. Yeah, I Waterfowl was
not my forte I that's probably into this day
in credit to the to the agents that put on that
course It's the hardest test I've ever taken
in my adult life. I mean, 225 questions, fill
in the blank. Yeah. And identifying birds by
wing and feather and some, yeah, crazy. Yeah.
You know, a bag and that's, oh my gosh, that
I still stress about that test when I think about
it. It's probably worth pointing out because
you know, a lot of our, a lot of listeners of
the show and watchers are not in law enforcement.
So most So the way the training works for federal
officers, federal agents is the FBI and the DEA
have their own academies at Quantico, but all
other federal agents, so whether it's Fish and
Wildlife Service, Secret Service, ATF, whatever,
they all go to the Federal Law Enforcement Training
Center in Glencoe, Georgia, which is called FLETC.
And within that program, the first thing that
they have to complete is what's called CITP,
Criminal Investigator Training Program, and that's
the program you go through in order to become
a special agent with the US government. And the
curriculum at FLETC is basically the same curriculum
that FBI agents and DEA agents do at their academies,
because obviously we want to make sure we can
all work together. But after that initial CITP
is done, all of the federal agents go off and
do what's called an add -on school, which is
specific to their particular area of responsibility.
Fish and Wildlife agents go to what's called
SABs, Special Agent Basic School. Secret Service
goes off to their own school to learn about what
they do. But the basic core training is at CITP,
where we all learn the basics of how to be special
agents. So like, for example, Sean, when you
and I went to the Academy, you remember, I think
we were in there with Diplomatic Security Special
Agents. We had a Forest Service agent that was
in our class. But yeah, it could be a mix, you
know, you might be sitting next to another fish
and wildlife agent, or you might be sitting next
to a Secret Service agent or an ATF agent in
your basic training. But as you mentioned, it's
no joke. You at CITP, if you do not score, I
forget it's in the low set, I think 72 % or something
on every exam 72 or better. You get one time
to do a redo on a test. And that's your one shot.
After that, if you do not score above the minimum
score required, you're escorted off the facility
that day. You're out. You're done. And there
is a level of stress there that is present, I
think, for all of us. And there's different aspects
of training, the physical training, the firearms
training. Each of us had our weaknesses that
we were worried about, right? Yeah. And if you
recall, we did lose people in our group. We did
and they were gone like that day. They were gone.
We never saw him again Yeah, pretty pretty pretty
great. You'd go to lunch or you'd go to another
training exercise and you'd come back and you
know, you You know, you'd see their little area
and it had already been collected up and yeah
empty and scrubbed and they were gone You didn't
see them not just gone. They were off the base.
Yeah Crazy. And then you referenced the waterfowl
identification course, which is something that
is part of the special agent basic school specifically
for Fish and Wildlife agents. And I'll tell you
this, Sean, you know, you know, I'm a lawyer,
and I practiced law before I became an agent.
So I had to take and pass state bar exams. And
I the only reason I bring that up is because
that waterfowl identification class My brain
has not hurt as the only time my brain hurt that
bad Studying for an exam was when I was studying
for a state bar exam to become a lawyer I mean
that was one of the hardest tests I have ever
taken in my life. That was brutal. I tell you
I mean, I remember we were weird to be up study
until midnight in that class looking at Bird
wings and bird feathers and carcasses trying
to get the ID down. That was a crazy time, wasn't
it? It was, and you know, and you know, of course,
you know, I went on to eventually become a senior
special agent at FLETC. Right. That's right.
And running a Savage class. And I tell you, it's
like, you know, having like what I would refer
to as like basic training flashbacks or something,
you know, when you start getting out those wings
and the guys would, they were coming in to teach
that class, you know, and I started getting sick
to my stomach and, you know, my head starts hurting
and it's like, Oh gosh, you know, and. You know,
but I, but there's a, you know, there's like
a badge of honor knowing that you passed that
course of a hundred percent, you know, and to
this day, legitimate. Yeah. And to this day,
if I ask you what a widget feather is, you're
going to know exactly what that is. Aren't you?
You better know what it was. Not as well as I
used to. You better know what a widget feather
is better now than I was then. But, uh, I think
I got an 82 on the test. I don't recall what
I got. I just know I passed. That's all that
mattered. Yeah. I mean, I definitely was better
coming out of that test than going in. Um, I
was definitely better on my Raptors than I was,
you know, which was obviously a separate test,
you know, your Raptor ID test, but, uh, Oh yeah.
My head still rolls. You know, when I, when I
think about that, that was, you know, and to
know that was at Lee in our class, you know,
he missed one on that entire test. And it's just
like, uh, you know, it's like, That's respect
to you sir. It only matters that you pass. You
know you that reminds me you're in your long
career You were a wildlife inspector before you
came an agent, which is the uniformed You know
inspection division of the Office of Law Enforcement
But you had a really cool kind of well -rounded
career you spent time as a as a training agent
at Flat C federal law enforcement training center
where you Inevitably, you know undoubtedly helped
many new agents through the training process
But you also ended your career as a resident
agent in charge in the in the northeastern US.
So you had a great opportunity to be a supervisor.
And then you started your career as a field agent
in region one on the west coast, same region
I was in, we didn't work in the same field office,
but we were in the same region. And that's, that's
where I want to jump to today. Because since
we're talking about birds, we might as well talk
about eagles. And one of the great fun cases
that you did involved some straight up eagle
poachers that ended up not just being people
who were out there shooting eagles, but they
were trafficking and eagle parts. And I think
you know, law enforcement, wildlife law enforcement,
people are definitely going to know what that's
about. But most I would bet most of our listeners
had really have no clue that eagle parts are
have value that they're trafficked that there's
a demand for them and people are out there killing
eagles. So Before we jump into the case, if you
don't mind, I want to give just a quick background
on what the situation with eagles in the US the
laws that protect them and then you you jump
in if I miss anything or you get anything wrong.
So basically, there's tears to eagles native
to North America. It's the bald eagle and the
golden eagle. And I think most people would know
them if they saw them. But there's there's Two
laws in particular that particularly protect
eagles. The bald eagle used to be listed under
the Endangered Species Act. It has been declared
recovered, so it has now been delisted. So it's
no longer under the protection of the ESA. But
both the bald eagle and golden eagle are protected
under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which is
a 100 -year -old law protecting migratory birds.
It's illegal to take a bird listed under the
MBTA, and to do so would be a Class B misdemeanor,
which means punishable by up to six months in
jail and I think a $25 ,000 fine. However, under
the MBTA, if you take a protected bird with the
intent to sell it, or if you do sell it, that's
actually a Class D felony, which means you go
to jail for up to two years. I don't I came out
what the maximum fine on that is. Do you remember
Sean? It's 100 ,000 or 250. I can't remember
on a class D felony Not not really important.
Yeah Cuz you'll never get the max penalty anyway.
Yes. Oh, no, you never get the max anything But
to say the least any time it's a felony. That's
that's the critical thing Yeah, the the other
law that protects eagles. There is a specific
law called the bald and golden eagle protection
act. It's a federal law basically just similar
prohibitions to what's under the MBTA, but it
specifically addresses bald and golden eagles.
And that penalty is a Class A misdemeanor for
first offense and can turn into a felony for,
I think, second or third offenses. I can't remember
for sure. Do you recall? Well, that's what's
unique about the statute is first offense is
a misdemeanor. Yeah, Class A. So that's one year
in jail, $100 ,000 fine. And then the second
offense is a felony. Yeah, okay. And that's what
makes that statute unique. Yeah. Yeah. And it
makes it more powerful than in the MBTA. Although,
if you get that take with intent to sell under
the MBTA, you've got pretty good felony charges.
Right. Yes. Yeah. Anyway, so that's kind of where
we are with eagles. But across the US, eagles
have value in illicit markets, primarily for
Their feathers and their sometimes their talons
or their other body parts Yeah, and I know you
worked in the western u .s. For quite a while.
So You know, there's a lot of eagles in california
and the western u .s. There's bald eagles all
over the u .s. Now So let's talk about this in
in 2007 you basically become aware of like a
straight -up eagle poaching case that kind of
was uncovered in progress, right? November 2007
In this case the dates are a little bit relevant
here because it starts to get a little convoluted
when you start talking about our subject here,
but Somebody gets a call from somebody calls
the California At the time cow fishing game.
They're not that they're now called California
Department of Fish and Wildlife that suspected
eagle poaching north of Bakersfield. So two wardens
driving separate vehicles head out there. They
just are. This is like a crime in progress gets
called in, right? This is happening now. Yeah,
yeah. Yeah, this is happening now. But most wardens
most game wardens in California and other states,
they're uniform, they drive a marked vehicle,
their essential function is patrol. And you know,
immediate enforcement. So Unlike a special agent
with the Fish and Wildlife Service who doesn't
wear a uniform doesn't drive a marked vehicle
They have radios in their vehicles. They're dispatched.
They have specific areas that they patrol. They're
kind of perfectly Positioned to respond to these
kind of crimes in progress, right? So yeah, that's
kind of cool because it even if Fish and Wildlife
had gotten the the tip it's not like U .S. Fish
and Wildlife Service has a dispatcher that could
dispatch somebody to go investigate. It's got
to be a state game warden who's the beat cop,
right? The first responder. They're out there
working. They get the call. They're going to
roll on it, basically. So it is cool. You had
there were two wardens in the area. They responded.
What would tell us what they what they discover?
Well, they they they were actually in pursuit.
One warden was in pursuit and and actually Pulled
over the vehicle that was in question that was
called in on the tip and was dealing with the
subjects in the vehicle all the while the other
warden found a. A deceased golden eagle on the
side of the road. And collected it up as evidence
since the report was that it was eagle poaching.
right? Seems seems appropriate. So that I mean,
it's a clue. It's a clue. And you know, again,
credit to the wardens for also doing some some
great evidence collection as well. Because without
good evidence collection, you really don't have
a case either. No, and this is a great example,
two of them working with us because they made
the initial contacts. But because you had built
relationships with your local wardens, they knew
eagle cases are also they're you know, federal
law, we have primary jurisdiction over eagles,
even though it's also a state violation. So they
roll up on this car. They've got a dead eagle
off the road, the report they got from the informant
or from the tipster is somebody's up here shooting
eagles. And I assume they gave a description
of the car. That's how the wardens found it.
Right. Yeah. So what did they discover when they
pulled this car over and they contact the people
in the car? So they contacted Kadoura Clark.
Okay. And and Kadoura Clark was somebody known
to the wardens who has historically been known
in that area as somebody who has been reported
to sell eagle parts on the Native American powwow
circuit. Unfortunately, some people take advantage
of the powwow circuits and go there to sell eagle
parts and You know, but certain native because
Native Americans have the right to possess You
know, there's there's a subsection of the law
that allows for them for religious rights and
you know for their Native American Religious
Freedoms Act To possess these things and they
do trade them But they can't they can't sell
them that's the difference they cannot sell them.
That's the difference, right? And Kedura Clark
is he is he a native? Well, that is well no He
claims he is but not on any so the way that the
way the Native American Tribal system works I
guess is the recognized tribes in the US have
a tribal membership role and they know who all
the members of the tribe are so in a situation
like this ultimately and we'll talk about it
later, I assume is It was possible for you as
an investigator to actually check with the tribes
and find out if Kadurah Clark was indeed an enrolled
member. Right. He claimed to be a certificate
of blood enrollment of the Blackfeet tribe in
Browning, Montana. Okay. Of subsequently no registration.
Yeah. Either at the tribal level or at the federal
level But he but he claimed that that's what
he claimed. Yeah. Yeah, which is not uncommon
You for an agent to encounter somebody who's
got eagle feathers? They're usually the first
thing they'll tell you whether it's true or not
is that their tribal member and they're entitled
to have them for religious purposes and and just
to be clear on this the 10th Circuit Court of
Appeals has made it very clear that you You have
to be a tribal member in order to take advantage
of this right to possess eagle feathers for religious
or cultural purposes. You cannot be, you know,
you or me, Sean, if we adopted Native American
religious practices and considered ourselves
following those doctrines or practices, that
does not entitle us. We have no legal protection
to it. possess an eagle feather. It's limited
to you must be a member of a recognized tribe.
And so it's pretty clear cut if you if you are
if a member or not a member. So Kedura Clark,
tell us what does Kedura Clark look like, like
physically describe him. So he's kind of a short
that he's like, you know, 5657 rotund African
American. Yeah. And then it's not to say that
a black person can't be a member enrolled member
of a tribe. But it's just it's just an he's an
interesting character in that he's pretty big
dude, right? As far as Yo, yeah, yeah. And he
he steps out of the car and it's not the first
image you have of here's a Native American with
eagle feathers for religious purposes, right?
Right. And I, you know, jokingly, I can I can
empathize because you know, as white as I look,
I'm a registered Hawaiian. That's right. I forgot
about that. Yeah, that's true. So, so I, I can
empathize with that. You know, if he says, you
know, if he looks African -American, but he says
he's registered member of the Blackfeet tribe
in Montana. Okay. It could be. I mean, you know,
when I say I'm a registered wine, I certainly
get the raised eyebrow till I slap out. I take
out my registration card and then, uh, you know,
and then that usually dispels, you know, most,
uh, you know, um, questions at that point, but
yeah, he, and he had fake registration papers,
but, um, yeah, they were all, they were, you
know, the investigation would, later show that
they were printed up by his brother. Yeah. So
what happened at this initial traffic stop with
Kudura Clark? Wasn't just there was somebody
else with Kudura, right? There was he wasn't
alone. Yeah. Thompson. Yeah. And what is his?
That was his buddy. That was his buddy Thompson,
who's was known to them as well. But the wardens
did a great job of evidence collection. They
looked in the car. They found other migratory
bird parts. They found weapons. They found two
rifles. They found blood in the trunk. They found
blood in the car. They took evidence, DNA evidence
of the blood. of both the areas of the vehicle
that they found. I mean, so they did a phenomenal
job of documenting the evidence. And really,
and if they hadn't done such a good job, we wouldn't
have that case in the Eastern District of California
starting right there. So, I mean, again, our
working relationship with California Fish and
Wildlife, Department of Fish and Wildlife Service,
phenomenal. Because I think they knew at that
point, we didn't know, obviously, but I think
they knew this probably, we're going to go the
federal route with this. Even though they issued
citations, they transferred the case over to
us. And then the AUSA filed those. in the Eastern
District. Oh, okay. So after that contact, when
they made that stop, they issued Kudura Clark
and his pal state citations. So they kind of
arrested, cited, and released, I guess. Is that
right? Yeah. And then how did US Fish and Wildlife
Service get involved after that? Did the wardens
reach out to you and Bo Stone, or what? Yeah.
So they contacted the Fresno office. So 2007
with the state game wardens, that's the first
time Clark had ever been charged, even though
he'd kind of been on radar screens for years
before that. Okay. Right. So this is so this
is a big deal. We had a supervisor up in Oregon
had cooperating private individuals or CPI, as
we call them, you know, informants. You know,
we had informants up in Oregon. who were reporting
to supervisors up there that were making it down
to California about Codora Clark. Interesting.
Okay. And so Codora Clark is well -known. He
was well -known up and down the West Coast of
being somebody that was a nefarious player on
the powwow circuit, somebody who was a bad actor,
somebody that needed to be looked into, somebody
that was killing eagles. Again, he was well -known.
to the major players out there who were illegally
trading in Eagle parts and people knew that Kodura
was charging upwards of $3 ,000 at that time
for a full Eagle. Upwards of $450 for certain
parts like maybe a tail fan or a talon or a head,
he would charge upwards of $450. So, but again,
what you know, what you can prove two different
things. So this was significant. Yeah, this is
significant. And this actually raises what you're
learning here raises another federal wildlife
law that could trick kick in, which would be
the Lacey Act. And the Lacey Act, basically,
it would be a felony to transport any wildlife
item, any, any wildlife taken in violation of
federal law that's valued at more than $350,
which all he has to do if he shoots an eagle
and he picks it up and he puts it in his car,
that's transport. And it doesn't have to cross
the state line if the triggering law would be
federal. So Lacey act would would trigger a felony,
which would be up to five years in prison and
a $250 ,000 fine. So now you've got some good
violations that you could potentially hit Kedura
Clark with. You mentioned that this initial state
charge that happened in 2007, well, resulting
from this traffic stop in 2007. Now you've got
it's, it's almost like you've got Kadurah Clark
cold, finally, finally, he's like, we got him,
right? I mean, he we got dead eagles, we got
a guy with eagle parts in his car, firearms,
blood. It was a good case. But you mentioned
that it got it started as a state case, but got
transferred to the feds. So was he? How did that
work? What was he charged with by the feds? And
when? And when and yeah, when and with what?
Well, so he wasn't actually well there's actually
a lot that happened in between okay when he was
actually charged a Few other things happened.
Okay, what happened? Yeah, he actually wasn't
charged until June of 2010 yeah with the with
the stuff that happened as a result of this Eagle
shooting in progress the charges didn't come
down till 2010 right on the on the Fed side.
Yeah. Yeah So another one of the things that
the wardens did though, which I think is worth
mentioning is that he took a field temperature
of the eagle before they collected it, which
was 104 degrees body temperature, which actually
was quite significant. Um, as far as determining
ca you know, time of death, uh, on the, on the
Eagle, which, uh, gave them very little wiggle
room on time, you know, uh, poaching Eagle call
coming in, then making contact with the cars
are chasing suing them, finding the Eagle that
that was all very significant. So again, a lot
of kudos to them for doing what they did. Uh,
that, that was all very significant. So. in that
contact. And then December of 2007, and really
the incident happened around December 16th, but
it was December 26th, your office in Torrance,
an agent gets a call from FedEx in the local
LA area that a package was returned from Canada.
that was, uh, broken up and there was, uh, look
like there was some animal parts in there, which,
uh, upon inspection was bald and golden eagle
parts. Okay. And, and, uh, uh, upon further in,
uh, investigation on that, on that day turned
out to be a one Codora Clark had attempted, well,
not attempted, but he had mailed. This FedEx
package to a subject in Canada without the proper
permits. It was labeled as Hopi dolls or You
know curios certainly not all the gold eagle
parts And didn't have the proper CITES permits
that would that Canada requires for that, but
certainly not authorized for export on the US
side. So now we're looking at two violations,
you know, for Cordura. And this second one, that
would have been a smuggling charge, which is
export smuggling is a serious felony. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. That's 10 years max. Laciact. Yep. I mean,
false false labeling. 18 USC 545 smuggling. Yep.
migratory bird. Treaty Act violations. I mean,
yeah, you're you're really stepping in on that
one. So this is a guy is this a guy who just
a few months before had been charged or contacted
by state game wardens for poaching and progress.
And a few months later, he's shipping he's continuing
to ship eagle parts out of the country. Yeah.
Like two weeks later, like two, three weeks later.
Okay. All right. Just a few weeks later. Yeah.
Clearly somebody who hasn't learned their lesson.
No, has not learned their lesson. No. Um, so
yeah, cause that was because it was late November
that they had this contact and it was just like
December 16th that emails the, the parts out
via FedEx. And you know, it wasn't until December
26th that they got the, the package back. So
right. Right. you know, there's some there's
some time delay there. But yeah, I mean, when
the dates are all figured out, I mean, this all
happened in pretty short succession. And this
is he the shipment went out of it went out through
FedEx in Southern California, I guess. Is that
right? Right. So now we're in the central district.
Yeah. So you've got him now in two different
put in judicial districts, right? You've got
him on Eastern California for charges on the
poaching incident. Right. And then Now you've
got a smuggling incident down in the central
district of California, which would be LA. Okay,
so, so when does, when does he get, when does
he get charged? I think if I remember right,
he got charged with the Northern California or
Eastern Californian stuffs earlier, right? Wasn't
he charged and eventually charged federally?
Yeah. So, so, so January of 2008. Yeah. Back
when we could still dress up as FedEx. or UPS
employees, we did a controlled delivery anticipatory
search warrant. Ah, okay. Explain what that is
for listeners who aren't law enforcement. Right.
So that is a search warrant that you're going
to serve on the contingency that they accept
the package. Got it. So you're going to do a
controlled delivery of a package. In this case,
it was the FedEx package that was returned to
the United States that he had attempted to ship
out. And upon successful receipt of the package,
that's when your search warrant becomes valid.
Got it. So you're actually, Clark doesn't even
know at this point that his package was intercepted
by Canadian authorities, yeah? Yeah, he doesn't
know that. Well, he knows it's been returned
to the United States. but he doesn't know that
it's been intercepted by law enforcement law
enforcement yeah he has no idea that you guys
know what's in it okay cool so he just thinks
he's getting the package back that's perfect
setup setup right yeah so um back at least in
2008 they don't they don't allow this practice
anymore uh but back in 2008 FedEx and UPS would
still allow agents of different agencies to dress
up as their carriers and participate in delivering
in a controlled delivery. I hate to tell you
this, Sean, but in Southern California, we never
cared what FedEx thought about that. In our closet,
in our office, we had a couple FedEx jackets.
And yeah, after 2008, we routinely dressed as
FedEx employees to deliver packages. I don't
know what year they stopped doing it. Yeah, I
don't remember either, but we didn't really care.
I mean, we had the jackets. It doesn't didn't
matter enough. Yeah, as long as it's not a policy
of the Fish and Wildlife Service. We didn't care
what FedEx thought. Okay, yeah. I only learned
that when I got when I was a rack in, you know,
New Jersey. And we were doing a lot of control
deliveries. And we were trying to coordinate
with FedEx. Yeah. And yeah, it used to be they'd
let us dress up like them and drive their trucks
and stuff. And that's what they don't do anymore.
We had to Kind of fake it and pretend our truck
was parked down the street when we did a delivery
dressed as one of them But anyway, that's it.
That's a total aside. Yeah, you do your you have
your package delivered and so you execute the
search warrant Yeah, so we working with cow fishing
game and you know, we did the joint Anticipatory
search warrant with the control delivery They
made it fun on us because they accepted the package
Codora Clark was there along with Thompson and
some other people after Package was delivered.
They take receipt of it Clark and another subject
was coming out We decided to go in They ran they
ran. Okay all they ran they made it fun Um, you
don't always get runners, but this case they
ran. Oh yeah. It was on. And, um, and we, but,
but, but, but Clark and the other guy, you know,
Clark wouldn't run it far. I mean, you know,
he's a little overweight. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,
he, even in a walk, it looked like he was, that
was his dead sprint, but, uh, yeah, he gassed
out pretty quick. The other guy was a runner.
Uh, he, he put on a good chase. Um, The guy with
the package though, he went out the back door.
So we didn't see where he went, but he went into,
he hopped the fence and was hiding. And so it
took some time to find him, but we found him.
And so he made it interesting. Yeah, that's a
fun one. But yeah, that was fun. He made it fun
for us. We pulled an incredible amount of stuff
out of that house. Wow. Eagle stuff. Oh gosh.
Yeah. I mean, I think the tally was the, I think
when all was said and done, I think the lab,
um, up in Oregon, when they tallied it up for
us, I want to say that they equated all the evidence
to equal about 10 different Eagles. Wow. Okay.
We have, I think our listeners know from previous
episodes, we have a forensic crime lab. specifically
dedicated to fish and wildlife cases. It's actually
run by the US Fish and Wildlife Service up in
Ashland, Oregon. So that's nice. They did the
forensic work for you. That's cool. Yeah. Yeah.
And so they and they attributed about at least
10 eagles out of that hall and then several other
my owls, other migratory birds, raptors and whatnot,
as you might expect. I mean, he's not going to
just kind of eagle feathers. I mean, he had all
kinds of feathers. Registration paperwork You
know, so, you know, and you know that the search
warrant is not the end of your case. No Yeah,
it's where the paperwork that's where the real
paperwork begins Yeah, there was there was a
lot of work to do a lot of work to do I mean
So I mean so much work in fact that I mean I
had time to go fight a war and then come back
There was a case was still there And the case
was still going on. And they were just charging
Clark as I was coming back from Afghanistan.
And that's how much work there was to be done.
It's like you have time to go fight a war in
Afghanistan and then come back and then you're
like, where are we at? Oh, we're just getting
ready to charter. But you know, sometimes the
wheels of government can move slow. investigation
scan, thorough ones. So yeah, you were, you were
in the reserves and you were called up and you
went to Afghanistan for a while there, in the
middle of your career. Yeah. Right. What was
we charged? Yeah, go ahead. What was he charged
with? So we, so we charged him with unlawful
take of a golden eagle, unlawful possession of
a golden eagle, and then unlawful possession
of migratory bird parts. Okay, that was out of
the Eastern District. Got it. Okay. And what's
the outcome of those charges? He was sentenced
in, he was officially sentenced in June of 2011.
But wait, did he go to trial or what? Did he
plead guilty eventually? Well, he eventually
pled guilty. Okay. Okay. He didn't go to trial
and then he didn't go to trial. No, he eventually,
he eventually, uh, struck a deal and he, um,
despite the evidence, which was overwhelming.
And again, and you know as well as I do, sometimes
despite your best evidence, sometimes deals are
made that are beyond your control. Well, once
we give our case to the U .S. Attorney's Office,
it's not our case anymore, it's their case. Right,
right. And I and I think where they had a problem
was was that there was no eyewitness account
of him taking the eagle Okay, I Mean, it's just
that's that one little hurdle that you can't
get over even though it was an eagle poaching
call Yeah, there's nobody else in the area the
lab had come back with a necropsy report, which
is an Optotser report for animals. I don't know
if you've discussed that or not. Yeah. So the
Necropsy report said that the eagle was killed
with a small projectile, but they didn't have
a bullet fragment preserved enough to match with
any of the rifles. So we didn't have a link analysis
to show that it directly came from one of his
rifles. Only enough to say that it could have
yep Come from like the 22 Magnum that that we
had seized so you had a you had a certain pretty
good Circumstantial case, but you didn't have
that. Yeah didn't have that concrete You know
somebody putting a gun in Kadurah Clark's hand
firing the gun at an eagle kind of you know Which
would have been that would have been your slam
dunk So he pled he pled guilty and cut a deal
with the US Attorney's Office. What did he end
up getting convicted of? So he the one charge
that they got him on was knowingly transporting
a golden eagle Because of the link analysis they
had with the blood from the eagle that was collected
With the blood that was collected from the vehicle
that they were able to Solidly connect that eagle
that was thrown out of the vehicle To the blood
that was in the vehicle was one in the same nice.
That's cool. So Yeah, that was cool. So even
though they couldn't get him on Killing the eagle
which circumstantial evidence Suggests there's
nobody else in the area who else could have done
it. Yeah, he wouldn't admit to it Neither did
Thompson, but they did admit to all we found
the eagle. It was already dead And then we threw
it out so They've got him admitting to transporting
it in collecting it. So hey, you know, that's
that's still a violation. Yep still a violation
But that's all we needed. Yep Because we got
him on the misdemeanor, right? So we got him
on that. So he got six months of unsupervised
probation. Okay So and that was in the Eastern
District so But this is important because you're
laying, some people are like, what? He only got
six months of unsupervised probation. But the
real important thing here is you laid down a
record, right? So finally, you've been looking
at this guy since at least 2002. When I say you,
I mean Fish and Wildlife and the state agencies,
California Department of Fish and Wildlife and
the feds, have been looking at Clark since 2002.
But now you finally got a record. It's if he's
down as a convicted eagle Transporter and that's
right. That's that baseline, right? So if you
catch him again now the penalties are gonna start
getting more and more harsh if you start to catch
him again, right? Right. Yeah, so good so I Was
very excited at that point to call my friend
in yours Dennis Mitchell Dennis Mitchell, Assistant
U .S. Attorney in the Central District of California.
Yep. Good guy. Great AUSA. Yep. Was very excited
to call him and let him know that we have secured
that misdemeanor and let's start working on that
felony in the Central District. And so, and we
started doing that. Of course, you know, Dennis
is, he got a lot on his plate. Yeah. He's a busy
AUSA. He is. And Dennis is the kind of guy. He
works in the US Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.
And he specifically is part of their environmental
crimes unit. So he works on a lot of our cases.
But he's one of those guys that you got to catch
him. And you got to get him to commit on. Once
he makes a decision on Tuesday, you got to get
him to commit. Because if you go back and talk
to him about the same thing on Wednesday, he
might totally change his mind about it. So he's
so busy. I've never seen anybody have more files
stacked on their desk and on the floor and in
on chairs in their office than Dennis Mitchell,
he'll take on everything. It's organized chaos,
organized chaos. He knows where it all is. But
it sure looks like there's going to be an avalanche
of paperwork at any moment. Yeah. Cause I would
go down there on details, you know, uh, cause
we issued a lot of subpoenas and, uh, cause I
think we had, cause we were set to go to trial
in July on, on, on the court. So Cordura Clark,
so I think he got ahead of yourself. So eventually
does Clark get charged down in Southern California,
central district? Yes. So it was, um, so in August
of 2012, So as you know, I mean, you know, now
that case ends in the central district or in
the eastern district, right? Now, now the case
begins in the central district. Right. And this
is the smuggling case involving eagle feathers
shipped to Canada by FedEx. Right. Right. So
now, now we're starting that case. Okay. That's
down in LA and I'm up in Sacramento. Right. And
then trying to travel down there. And your office
provided me a lot of assistance. And again, that's
where having good working relationships with
even people in your own agency helps. Because,
you know, sometimes if it was just one little
thing that needed to be done, you know, having
an agent down there doing it for you was a great
assistance to me. Not having to go all the way
down there. I remember I brought, you were down
at the US attorney's office in LA on this case,
like, eight or nine o 'clock at night one night.
I brought something down. I brought some boxes
of stuff over to the U .S. Attorney's Office
for you. I can't remember. I know we met at the
loading dock at the U .S. Attorney's Office.
Yeah. Yeah. It was one of those things. Dennis
was like, oh, yeah, we need this. We need this.
And I'm like, that's like, Dennis, that's that's
at the Torrance office. Yeah. And he's like,
I need it. Yeah. And I gave you a call and you're
like, you were at home. Yeah. You drove to the
office and got it and brought it over. I didn't
live too far from the office. So that worked
out. And I was like, I always like to be out
at night in LA anyway, working so. So he gets
indicted in Central District for the smuggling
charge. Is that what Dennis did for you? Yeah,
so he so he, we eventually get him indicted in
August of 2012. On four counts of false labeling,
Laci act. The 545 smuggling outside of the US,
right? And then unlawful export of of bald and
golden eagle outside of the US and then illegal
possession of my illegal possession of migratory
bird parts. Okay, nice. So, so for count indictment.
Yeah, that's kind of touching on felonies in
there. Lacey felonies. Yeah, Lacey, 18 USC, Bald
and Golden Eagle and MBTA. So yeah, good, good
profile, good roundabout profile there. That
was that felt pretty good. So what happens to
explain what happens when somebody is indicted?
They were they would did Clark was an arrest
warrant issued or was he summons Dan after he
was indicted? Do you remember? Yeah, so yeah,
Dennis and I talked about that and. We so one
of two things can happen. You can issue a summons
and just say hey, we would like you to come in.
You're required to come in. You've been indicted.
You're required to show up. Yes, that's putting
it too nicely. Yes, you're required to come in,
but but but we're giving you this option of coming
in on your own accord, right? And here's the
date and time that you're required to come in
and, and, you know, uh, be read these charges,
or we can just issue an arrest warrant and not
tell you about it. And then at a time of our
place in choosing, we will come and find you
and put on those iron handcuffs and bracelets
and then bring you in when it's convenient for
us. And then that's usually a surprise to the
individual. And we felt that that was more appropriate
in this situation for a lot of reasons. Second
offense. Well, yeah, I mean, second offense,
the fact that we just didn't feel that Clark
was taking this seriously. Well, there's some
people that learn a lesson and some people that
don't. That's just the bottom line, yeah. Right,
and it's the bottom line. And he wasn't learning
a lesson. Yeah. So you issued that, you got an
arrest warrant, you had an arrest warrant for
him after the indictment, huh? We did. And the
other reason is we couldn't find him. We had
no idea where he was. And it's hard to issue
a summons if you don't know where he is. So in
that sense, we had to issue an arrest warrant
because like, go find him. And how do you do
that? What would you do once you had your arrest
warrant in hand? You don't know where he is How
do you go about making this arrest? Of course,
this is where you kind of come into this this
story Yeah, I was I was lucky enough to get involved
in this which was one of a very fun thing for
me because I during my career I actually had
a number of opportunities to chase down fugitives
and I loved it. I loved doing that it was one
of my favorite things to do so But anyway, once
so the mechanics of this are once a an arrest
warrant is issued, the US Marshals put it into
NCIC. So that, you know, if for if perhaps Kadoura
Clark's pulled over for a traffic violation,
and the local police, you know, do a routine
check on him, it should pop up, right? They should
say, Oh, he's got an arrest warrant, and they
should arrest him for you. So you kind of have
that out there. There's the chance that Codura
Clark could get contacted by a local police officer
on a routine traffic stop and get picked up that
way. But also, you can kind of send this warrant
out to different agents in the service and presumably,
you don't know where he is, but you have some
ideas where he might be, right? And I think that's
why you called me because you had an idea he
might be in Southern California, isn't it? That's,
that's my recollection of it in any way, isn't
it? Yeah, we knew he had a girlfriend that was
down in Southern California. His ex -wife was
in Southern California. He had two boys. So we
knew that he had ties to the LA area. There was
no information that we had that had him, he had
been up in Sacramento and in Northern California
at times. Right. But all the information that
we had suggested that he was either out of the
state and was, you know, in South Dakota or Montana,
Denver, or he was in LA. I remember you, you
told me you had sent some leads out to other
agents in other states. I believe South Dakota
was one of them to kind of say, Hey, can you
see if you can find this guy? Do you remember
what you did personally like up in your area?
Did you try to find him? What steps did you take
to find him? Well, we hit all the hotspots that
we knew he was known to either stay at or people
that he knew or hung out with. I mean, all the
areas that you would canvas. Yeah. Any of the
powwows we would hit. um you know any any associates
or known associates you know uh long hours uh
looking for him just looking look yeah just looking
i mean so i'll jump i'll jump in here because
this is one of the neat things about being a
special agent with u .s fish and wildlife service
we have agents all over the country you mentioned
you reached out to agent brad merrill in south
dakota thinking maybe you know you know that
uh Clark's got connections with Native Americans.
He likes to kind of tell people he's a Native
American. He's obviously selling feathers in
that community. So there's a chance he could
show up out there at a powwow or on a reservation.
So you were able to reach out to Agent Merrill
for some help on that. Brad couldn't find him.
You've got yourself and other agents in Northern
California looking, but you also were able to
just reach out to our office and you called me.
And I'll tell you, I did similar things. So here's
what I did. First of all, whenever I got a call
from an agent from outside my district, I kind
of made that my priority because I always thought
one of the greatest strengths of the US Fish
and Wildlife Service is that we have this network
of agents, right? So I loved it when I would
get a call from an agent from outside my district
who said, hey, Ed, I need your help. Can you
do X, Y or Z? always kind of tried to make that
my highest priority because I just thought that's
that that is the strength that our Agency has
in law enforcement that say state agencies do
not have we can we can just pick up the phone
and make a call to an agent we know in that area
and they'll They will kind of become an extension
of us So when you called me and you said hey,
we can't find this guy. We need to find him I
was like, okay now I am Shawn man This is you
know, I'm thinking like Shawn. I want to get
this guy And I made it my priority. And I kind
of did what you did up north. I started with,
I just started going to powwows in Southern California
looking for him, right? I mean, I literally had
the arrest warrant in my pocket and I'd go to
the powwows and look for this guy and couldn't
find him. And then we had, we started to do surveillance
on an address in Pacoima that turned out he was,
he was his brother -in -law or something was
there were people living there who were renting
the house from Kedura Clark see their brother
or brother -in -law I can't remember but they
claimed they didn't know where he was but we
did surveillance on that house for weeks and
we never saw him and then this is this is where
we finally got him in LA we finally got him in
Southern California and and I'll tell you the
way we got him Sean is like you I always took
advantage of networking with other agencies and
there are what are called fusion centers in law
enforcement. They're all over the US. And they're
centers usually in urban areas where different
law enforcement agencies will have representatives
and they're you're able to blast out messages
among many, many law enforcement agencies very
quickly. So I put together like a little arrest
package on Clark, it had a wanted poster that
I made for him. It had, you know, the warrant.
it had kind of his basic details on who he was
who he associated with what kind of cars he might
be driving and I blasted this out to every single
law enforcement agency in Southern, California
LAPD Riverside Sheriff's Office San Bernardino
Sheriff's Office local police and you know you
kind of do that with a bit of a you know, maybe
a shyness because you're like hey Among all of
the drug dealers and bank robbers and murderers
you guys are looking for Here's here's an eagle
trafficker. You might want to keep your eyes
open for credit, but you know what? To my surprise
the local fugitive units like LAPD has a fugitive
unit most of the sheriff's department have fugitive
units that look for people who have active warrants
and Those guys were super interested in this
case. I mean they were fascinated by this case
And I will never forget your reaction when I
called you, I believe it was 2013. I had sent
out the messages and basically I got a phone
call from the head of the San Bernardino County
Sheriff's Office SWAT team. And he told me, hey,
we've been looking for your guy and we noticed
that a license, one of the license plates you
sent us has been popping up on a license plate
reader at the local courthouse. We followed we
waited and we followed that car. We waited for
it. We followed that car and We saw a woman go
into an apartment and come out again and when
she walked down the street We kind of stopped
her and we found out it was Kadura Clark's girlfriend
and he was living in the apartment so basically
the SWAT team took our warrant and hit that apartment
and They arrested Kadura Clark on I think it
was May 30th 2013 and I remember when I called
you and you were like What? The San Bernardino
Sheriff's Office SWAT team just arrested Kadoura
Clark. That was that was a pretty fun day. Yeah.
Do you remember? Do you remember getting that
call from me? I do. Well, oddly enough, it's
you know, that was my son's birthday. And I thought,
hey, you know, what a perfect day, you know,
I mean, you know. Kadur is my son's birthday
and Kadur Clark gets arrested, you know. Yeah,
no kidding. So we finally get him into custody
and he's processed down here in Southern California
is kind of nice because they sheriff's office
arrested him. Then the marshals took him over
to the jail. We didn't even have to like physically
deal with him. Right. What was so what was the
outcome then in Southern California was he was
obviously he's indicted. Did he plead or go to
trial on that part? So. He ended up pleading
guilty. Um, I mean, we had an airtight case against
him. Yeah. You know, during grand jury in doing
subpoenas, we had gotten the FedEx video from
inside the store. No way he's saying that it's
not me. I mean, yeah, there's so many other cool
aspects to this case We haven't had a chance
to talk about like that surveillance video from
the FedEx store showing him drop off the package,
right? Right. It's pretty good stuff. So We had
such great evidence against him. So what was
it? So what was the outcome of the Southern California
case? Well, they he ended up pleading guilty
to the one count of the false labeling charge
Okay, still a felon which Yeah, and so um But
there was I would to my surprise there was no
jail time But so he ended up doing three years
of supervised probation, okay So and he got a
hundred hours of community service, okay So,
you know any subsequent evidence of him continuing
to kill or traffic in eagle parts You know I
don't know because It was not shortly after that
maybe a what a year and a half after that that
I Ended up transferring to FLETC. Mm -hmm. So
yeah, I mean, you know He was still been on probation.
Yeah Or at least during his probationary period
I I ended up well you ended up leaving 2015 Going
after going overseas and then I left to go to
FLETC. So you and I both left Region one or at
least region eight at that time now We never
heard about him again after that though. He never
popped up on anybody's radar screen You know,
I was in I remained in Southern, California till
2015 and then in 2020 I came back until 2022
when I retired and Yeah, we never he never popped
up on our radar screen again. So I don't know,
as far as I know, Sean, you, you shut him down.
Yeah, either that or COVID got him. I don't know.
I mean, I mean, one upper respiratory disease
would have taken that man out. I mean, he's I
don't know. I don't know what happened to him.
That's an interesting concept. That's actually
an interesting note to end on, Sean, because
we're just about out of time. But I think that
he didn't go to jail on that second one, which
is a little surprising, but it was a harsher
sentence. And he didn't pop up on the radar screen
again, whether it was because he learned his
lesson or because of COVID. I don't know. But
I hope he learned his lesson. We'll just assume
he learned his lesson. And I hope he's alive
and well. Yeah, me too. But Sean, I appreciate
you coming on to tell us the story. Eagle trafficking
or feathers, trafficking in eagle feathers is
not something that a lot of people think about.
It still goes on. It still happens. There is
some illegal activity going on among the powwows
with people illegally selling feathers. So it's
something the US Fish and Wildlife Service is
always looking at and always aware of. I appreciate
you coming on to tell the story. And it's great
to see you again. Thank you so much for being
on the show. I love it, Ed. Thanks. I love being
on here. Great to see you. Fantastic. All right,
everybody. Thanks for joining us for this week's
episode of Nature's Secret Service. If you want
more information about Sean's case, you can find
it on the website at naturesecretservice .com.
Thanks for joining us. We'll see you next time.
Nature's Secret Service is written and produced
by me, Ed Newcomer. and is co -produced by the
DHTV team here at California State University
Dominguez Hills. Follow us on social media and
connect with us online at naturessecretservice
.com.