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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. Today,
our guest is Jeff Bouda, former wildlife officer
with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission. He has an astounding 35 -year career
in public service with the state of Florida.
25 years of those were as a sworn wildlife officer
with the state. He retired in 2019. I first heard
about Jeff maybe, I don't know, a year or so
ago, and I immediately knew I wanted to have
him on the podcast. Jeff, thanks so much for
joining us. You're joining us from your home
in Florida. I really appreciate you taking the
time to do that. Welcome to Nature's Secret Service.
Well, thank you. Happy to be here. We're going
to talk about something I think really fun today.
Because as you know, before you came on the show,
I actually asked you, I said, hey, make sure
you go back and listen to our very first episode.
Because our first episode was with a retired
US Fish and Wildlife Service agent named Marie
Palladini, who worked on alligator trafficking
cases early in her career. And I think it's so
fascinating that you kind of closed out your
career. working on an alligator trafficking case.
Yes, it was. Um, it was just something that,
uh, you know, started like four years prior to
retirement. Amazing. And, and if you think about
it, that's like a 40 year span between what she
was working on and what you worked on, which
is pretty cool. So it's catch us up a little
bit before we jump into the investigation you
worked on as a state officer in Florida. catch
us up a little bit. If I remember right, your
operation kind of kicked off around 2015. If
you can kind of tell us, what was the situation
with alligators in Florida at that time? What's
their status? Why are they a concern for this
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission?
Just give us some background. Well, as you know,
with Marie's case, she fell into it. right when
they put the alligator in the endangered species
list back in the 70s, early 60s, or late 60s,
early 70s. And then by the time I came on as
an officer, the conservation practice was very
successful. That the state of Florida began a
alligator hunt, public hunts, which still goes
on till today. But then we started trying to
get more farmers involved in the state of Florida.
So the state of Florida began a farming program
to where individuals, private individuals can
farm alligators for their hide and their meat
and all that on top of that. They can also produce
eggs that'll you know, add to their farm. As
in Louisiana, they do the same program except
the farmers there need to put back a certain
percentage, if I'm not mistaken, back into the
wild population. So what caused our investigation
was we did an inspection of all the farmers throughout
the state of Florida and we were getting all
this data. that wasn't, using the word, it wasn't
jiving with what the wild population and our
biologists is saying that it's not sustainable
for these numbers that these farmers were turning
in. They were having like 110 % hatch rates.
They're producing all these hatchlings and returning
it to their ponds to... to raise and all that.
So I kind of threw up a red flag with our staff,
especially our inspectors. And they kind of thought,
maybe what if these alligator eggs were being
taken through these farms and sold illegally?
where they were being funneled through the farms.
And that's how they're getting all these hatch
rates. So that's when I came into the picture.
Interesting. Let me back up just a little bit.
So there's a couple of cool points here. One
is, because alligators had been listed on the
Endangered Species Act and law enforcement officers
like Marie Palladini and Florida state officers,
Louisiana state officers, and other federal officers,
worked so diligently on this in the 70s, alligators
recovered to the point where they actually became
commercially viable. That, I think, is a really
interesting, cool thing. Not only are they in
the wild, but they actually can now be farmed.
And it sounds like they're very closely regulated
by the state. But I'm a little confused this.
So it sounds like the numbers in the paperwork
aren't matching up with your inspectors, like
the too high of a hatch rate for these farms.
So what's the suspicion? Is it that they're going
out and they're supplementing their stock by
taking eggs from the wild? Yes. And then they're
being laundered through the alligator farms and
being sold that way. Got it. Like I said, that's
when the agency decided we needed to do a little
bit more thorough investigation on what's happening.
And so that's when I came into the picture and
they asked me to, you know, to go undercover,
to do this. Very cool. Now, there's a funny aspect
to this about you going undercover because, but
first I want to ask you just, you know, in your
experience as a state officer, certainly as a
Fed, This kind of laundering that you're discussing
where you take wild and you put it into a farm
situation and then you make it look like it was
raised on a farm. Very common with a lot of different
animals where there is this crossover between
wild and a farmed or what they call captive raised.
In the feds, we see it with primates. We see
it with all kinds of reptiles, different types
of mammals. I assume the same for you working
for the state. It's a problem, right? If you
have a captive breeding program and a wild population,
inevitably there's going to be that temptation
for people to take from the wild and launder
it through their captive systems. Yeah, and like
I said, our biologists saw that, you know, you
take a wild alligator, which a lot of the wild
alligators that make it to these farms are actually
our nuisance out here. Interesting. Our farmers
are allowed to take those gators, raise them
in a commercial environment, if you will. an
enclosed environment. When you do that with a
wild alligator, that is just not natural. So
when we get these numbers that are 100 % hatch
rate, or they're telling you that they may have
a quarter acre pond, for instance, but the numbers
are coming in that they're raising 125 alligators
in that quarter acre pond. We were seeing these
really crazy numbers. And so, you know, we did
a little bit more thorough investigation by sending
out more of our inspectors to go visit all these
facilities. And they came back and that's when
our colonel decided to, let's go ahead and do
a covert operation, see what's going on. Real
quick, what's a nuisance alligator? I think I
know, but explain what that is. A nuisance alligator
would be one like, especially during March, April,
That's the breeding season. And you're going
to find alligators as moving from one pond to
another or Florida probably just like where you're
at, it's expanding, it's booming. So we're taking
all these lands that used to be wild lands and
putting 250 homes in it. And so these are chasing
all your wild... animals that used to live in
that environment into golf courses, into these
communities where these homes are. So people
find them in their swimming pools, in their front
yard, underneath a parking lot or underneath
a car in a parking lot. So that's when we get
called in. But we started getting, because it
was such a success rate, we were getting so many
calls on these nuisance alligators that the state
started a nuisance trapper program where private
individuals can now come in and they take care
of a lot of those nuisance alligators too so
we can concentrate on more important things with
our wildlife. Got it. Like I said, the farmers
then, how they make their money, the trappers,
is we don't pay them in. I see. What they do
for us as far as catching these nuisance alligators
that's how they source out their revenue by selling
it to farmers or butchering it themselves and
then selling the hide and the meat and whenever
the price is right, of course. Yeah. OK. So I'm
sure that's something else that's heavily regulated
by your agency. OK. So your command staff comes
to you and says, hey, Jeff, we think there's
a problem here. We want you to go undercover.
You're kind of at the end of your career. What's
your first thoughts on when that happens to you?
Well, when here's what started the whole thing,
you know, as law enforcement officers, we have
a continuing education and I've taken so many
courses and classes that I saw a covert operation
course being put on by our agency, which actually
attracts other fish and wildlife agencies to
Florida to take this course. So I had like four
years left and I decided, you know, that'd be
something cool for me to do. I have no intention
of going ever going undercover. It was just something
that looked like fun. So I took the course. Evidently,
I did well because about a year later and later
on, I find out, by the way, that this is pretty
much how they pick people to go undercover. And
so I get a call, several calls. And the first
time I received the call, I not only said no,
but I said, hell no, because I'm fixing to go
under, or I'm fixing to retire and I don't want
to get hurt or injured before I retire. So the
calls kept coming. So it wasn't until like the
third or fourth call when they said, hey, we
know you're going to retire here in a few years,
but. If you were successful with this, how would
you like to go out with a bang? No kidding. I'll
meet with command staff. Okay. But I don't know.
Uh, I had to talk to the wife, which of course
she didn't like the idea. So I met with them
and usually when you do something like this,
it's so secretive. There's only a couple. Handful
of command staff that that will meet with you,
but then they don't ever tell you what you're
gonna do So I agreed to a one year Being out
of uniform to the covert operation and As long
as I commit it to one year, then they would they
would go back and have their little meeting.
Anyways, they got all approved. Okay But prior
to leaving the command staff that day The last
thing they told me was you might want to grow
your hair out. Because I'm not your ordinary,
you know, I look Hawaiian, Asian. Most people
have Mexican. Most people have no clue what my
background is. So I do stand out. I really stand
out, especially within my community. If you say
this Asian Hawaiian looking guy, which incidentally
I'm originally from Guam. They'll say, Oh yeah,
that's the guy that checked me. Right. Versus,
you know, uh, uh, uh, uh, a blonde hair, blue
eyed came more. And so I stood out. So when they
told me you might want to grow your hair out,
grow goatee or beard, whatever, because, uh,
you're going to go deep under. I didn't realize
later on that the county that I was going to
be assigned to do this covert operation was right
next door. And I've worked, I've worked this
area. But still at the time when they ask you
to do this, they don't tell you that. So the
very first thing that I did actually prior to
this, and I kind of took it as a field training
program where I got to learn how to use different
tools and, you know, audio equipment and video
recordings. And so the first thing I actually
did was we had an issue with softshell turtles
in central Florida and that already had an investigation
going on and kind of determined that the problem's
pretty close by to where I'm going to be assigned
to. So me and my assigned lieutenant at the time,
my covert lieutenant, went and kind of did a
little bit of surveillance on this individual
that was involved with these Chinese people that
had opened up a turtle farm here in Okeechobee.
And we kind of had some suspicion that people
were bringing turtles over. They're not necessarily
just all soft -shelled turtles, but box turtles
and other turtles, snapping turtles, but they're
really after soft -shelled turtles. So when we
were doing the surveillance on this one individual,
we were driving past his house. and we saw a
dog box in the front of his house, which meant
he's a big dog hunter. More than likely, he's
a big hog hunter. Right. Using dogs to hunt,
right? Correct. So we pulled into his driveway,
knocked on the door, and we use this excuse that
we own a... My lieutenant at the time owned a
landscaping business, and I was one of the employees.
And we were wanting to know if he would sell
us a hog for a big gathering that we're gonna
have. And prior to pulling him to his house,
we just happened to have a huge turtle in the
back of our truck. And we made agreements of
the price, the whole bit, so now the guy's following
us out to the truck. And he hears that thing
scratching the back of the turtle or the truck,
looks back there and he sees a soft -shelled
turtle. And he immediately says, man, where did
you get that thing? And it was a pretty large
turtle. And I told him, I said, you know, up
at our shop where we, you know, sharpen all our
equipment, our lawnmower blades and repair all
our equipment for the landscaping business, there's
this huge pond. and I found this turtle when
it was outside of the pond, and I captured it.
Didn't know what to do with it, and I said, you
want it? He goes, shoot yeah, man. I'll take
that thing. I know a guy that I can sell them
to. So that's what started the whole thing. Interesting.
Then I began going out, and we hooked up with
an individual that was complaining about, he
was a commercial fisherman. that his area that
he normally catches all these turtles were, you
know, the numbers weren't right. He felt like
somebody was raping the waters in his work. So
he's feeling like he's not catching as much as
he should. Correct. Yeah, too few. And he knew
that there was something going on and that anyways,
he wanted to help us out. Help Florida Fish and
Wildlife. So he volunteered to help me get turtles.
So we would, I would leave my home, this prior
before me even going completely under, I would
leave my home early, early in the morning at
four o 'clock and I'd meet him. He was about
an hour and a half from me and we'd go out and
we'd set these trout lines. You know, he told
me what one time it was anywhere from three quarters
to a mile long. Trot line is a set of lines with
all these drop lines on it with hooks and you
bait them and you release them out in the water
and you can make a loop along the shoreline or
however you want to set it up and you can catch
everything from his targets were softshell turtles
and catfish. He would catch a few of the turtles
for us. And, you know, I could see what he was
complaining about because, you know, for us to
set out, let's just say we set out 500 lines,
500 hooks, we'd be lucky if we caught 10 turtles.
Normally, what would you catch if things were?
Mostly catfish, mostly catfish. I mean, assuming
things were not going downhill for turtles, how
many would you have expected? on a 500 hook.
Oh, he, you know, in the, in the old days, he
would tell him, tell me him and his daddy back
in the old days would catch anywhere from 60
to 100, uh, easily every, every couple of days.
So he had a legitimate complaint that there was
something happening. So I will take those turtles
now and take it to that individual that was selling
it to the Hispanic guy. And, uh, we will take
it out. back to in the back of his house and
he had all these huge Cattle troughs and he put
a little bit of water in it and he put all these
turtles in it and he had all these palm fronds
on top of the troughs to keep them in the shade
until his in person Would come and pick pick
them up and then pay him So that that went on
for a few days or a few a few weeks But the very
first time that we did that, as we left his home,
we had an idea of the vehicle that these people
were driving, these Chinese people. And it was
a blue van. And as we were leaving the individual's
house, guess what passes us? It was a blue van.
And so we knew that that connection was, we hit
it just right. So anyways, this went on for several
weeks and then after about maybe three months
of this is when the agency decided to take them
down because we have then discovered that they
were leaving Florida going all the way up to
New York and then they were being put in a container
alive from New York and then being shipped to
China where they're... considered a delicacy.
So you kind of use this turtle case to kind of
get yourself ready to go into the bigger alligator
case, right? Yes. And I'm glad I did. Looking
back at some of the photos and the way I taped
the individual, you know, we're standing in front
of the scale because he was paying me by the
pound. I've got these tools that we would use.
Actually, it was a key fob that had a camera
in it and a tape recorder, and I could tape everything
that's going on. So after a few months of that,
maybe four or five months, we decided to wrap
it up. We followed them up to New York and determined
that we needed to go ahead and take them down.
I wasn't a part of that takedown. So right after
the takedown, we had a little meeting and that's
when they threw me a set of keys. And they said,
here's your real operation. Remember they haven't
told me what I was going to go undercover. You
still didn't know at this point it was going
to be alligators. No, no, no. Interesting. Okay,
okay. I catch the keys and there's a note attached
to it and this is the address. And I said, what
is it? And he said, that's the address. Go look
at this place. So I go to a town near called
Arcadia and I go to this address and I opened
the gate and they gave me the combination and
it's a dump. They had already rented a... nine
acre piece of property had three ponds on the
property. And so I called him up and I said,
what is this place? And they said, you're going
to turn that into an alligator farm. This is
the first, this is the first you've heard of
what you're going to be doing undercover work
on the very first time. They don't tell you that.
Why? What? That is so foreign to me. It's just
that secretive that They're afraid that I'm gonna
pull out and, you know, start telling everybody,
hey, they asked me to go undercover to open up
this alligator farm. I don't know, it wasn't,
they didn't want to take their chances. That
seems like, that really strikes me as so odd
that that never would happen in the US Fish and
Wildlife. We would always involve the undercover
person at the very beginning of. developing an
operation. It's just such a strange way to operate.
I don't understand the logic. But but you know,
that's the way they do it. Pretty much worked
out because they told me that whatever, anything
to do that has to do with alligators, you're
gonna, you're gonna start with this farm. And
you're gonna what we're interested in is alligator.
I see. And I'm like, I've never even seen an
alligator egg, you know, during as a as a normal
patrol officer, as a normal game or now wasn't
anything we really did. We have inspectors in
the agency that go and evaluate all these farmers
or inspect them. So I've never even really seen,
I've caught hundreds, literally hundreds of alligators.
As part of your job, yeah. The nuisance gators,
all that. But I've never really seen an alligator.
Interesting. Like everybody else I googled and
got on YouTube how to be an alligator farmer
and I Began building this so -called farm. I
had to follow the agency's policies on fencing
and and everything Had to apply for permits,
but everything had to be done covert. Okay even
the inspector that came to Inspect my facility.
I knew the guy When they called me and the lieutenant
called me, he said, hey, I've set you up an inspection.
Go ahead and give this guy a call. And he told
me the individual's name. I said, man, I know
that. He goes, you're going to have to come out
with something. So you got to keep your cover
even with other people? Within the agency. OK,
OK. You know, even throughout the Academy when
I first joined, even at the Academy, they told
us about people. going undercover. And that if
you ever run into somebody, you never talk to
and you have any suspicion because they got long
hair or something. But even though you're sitting
at a bar and you recognize this guy, you just
just just never talk to him. Don't don't. No,
no, no. So you you know that. So what I did was
about an hour before he arrived at my facility.
I got the hell out of And I called him and I
said, listen, I've got a family, and I disguised
my voice and I said, I've got a family emergency.
All my paperwork is in the barn. You'll find
the keys underneath the mat. This is the gate
combo. Please go help yourself. I'm sorry I couldn't
be there. You tell me what all I need to open
up this farm. And next thing you know, I'm getting
my permit. I was lacking a few items. You know,
people will circumvent the law. And for a professional
farm, for instance, they have raceways, like
you would see at fish hatcheries. Well, some
of the farmers have kind of circumvented that
law and started using kiddie swimming pools as
their way of raising hatchlings. Well, guess
what? I knew the state didn't have any, or they
didn't have the funds to really make this operation
go right. I did not know how this was even gonna
work out. Prior to me even becoming a wildlife
officer, I worked with Division of Fisheries
at a fish hatchery. And I know the background
on what it takes to open up a fish hatchery.
That was really my only obstacle to get my farming
permit through Florida Fish and Wildlife was
I needed to go buy a few more swimming pools.
Gotcha. So as soon as he called me back and he
told me I needed so many pools, I said, how do
I get back with you? Because I sure as hell didn't
want to go see him again. He said, just send
me a receipt and a photograph of all the swimming
pools. So I went to every Kmart, every Walmart
where I could buy swimming pools. And that's
how I completed my farm, doing it that way. And
you bring up an interesting point, because your
agency's asked you to start this undercover business.
There, I assume, going to expect this business
to kind of fund itself, right? They're not going
to have unlimited financial resources to run
it. No. And I really lucked out there because
for a whole year there to begin with, nothing
was happening. I mean, I went out and I made
business cards. I made this grand entrance. I
started to go out and hang out with nuisance
trappers. And I would call nuisance trappers
and I was building up my stock. If I found a
kiosk at the local tractor supplier or Walmart,
I was pasting my business cards there. I pretty
much went with that saying that if you build
it, they will come. made placards for my truck
in case I did hook up somebody that they would
know that this truck belonged to this individual
or whatever. And I just paraded around Arcadia
and advertised who I was. So I don't want us
to run out of time on this discussion because
we could probably talk all day about this, Jeff.
This is so fascinating. But your ultimate goal
now is to try to figure out who's laundering
wild eggs into the system. Correct. So how did
you make that leap then, where you got introduced
to somebody who was involved in laundering wild
eggs into the captive system? Well, to begin
with, I was visiting other farms. I see. Okay.
And I was visiting them unannounced. I wanted
my name to be put out there. I wanted my farm
name to be put out there, which incidentally
was called Sunshine Alligator. Okay. So this
industry is so nitly tight that everybody has
their own trade secrets. So nobody was going
to invite me in and say, Hey, this is what we
do. This is a temperature we use, or this is
the feed we use. Nobody was sharing any of that
with me. So, you know, when I was going through
all that, I was thinking, you know what? This
is not, by the way, my uh, UC name undercover
name was Curtis Blackledge. But when you go undercover,
you try and go back to your first original name.
And so I eventually became Jeff Curtis Blackledge
to just being Jeff Blackledge. And that's how
I would introduce myself. But my driver's license,
everything, my, my bank, uh, my ATM car, everything
was Curtis Blackledge. But the reason you do
that is in case when you're at a restaurant and
one of them officers come in or your neighbor
and sees you and says, hey, Jeff, you know, then
you can at least automatically respond. Exactly.
Because then the other guys are like, I thought
your name was Curtis. Exactly. Or worst case,
the bad guys are the bad guys are yelling, hey,
Curtis, and you're not turning around. That actually
happened to me. I stopped by at a one of these
fast food joints, and you know how you take their
order and they ask you for your name. Oh boy,
you just stood there waiting. I was standing
there calling this guy Curtis. Finally, this
older gentleman nudges me and he goes, hey man,
I think they're calling your order and she's
hollering my name. Oh yeah, that's me. That was
a test. Well, I learned real quick that you need
to learn your name. Exactly. Okay, so you're
making friends and now how are you going to break
into the egg business? I was showing up unannounced
and I'm thinking, you know, I'm not, this is
not me. So I'm just going to swallow my pride.
You know, law enforcement people have a lot of
pride. They don't like to be embarrassed or beat
in anything. So I just started showing up unannounced,
calling people and say, Hey, let's do lunch.
None of that was happening. So one or a few,
almost a year later, the agency decided to open
up the farming industry. to even more people
because it was really locked down to only 30
farmers throughout the whole state of Florida.
And they were wanting to host a meeting to try
and go from 30 to I believe 35 farmers throughout
the state. And so I happened to be hooking up
with an individual close to me that showed up
and attended that meeting. I was so scared to
go to that meeting because I knew biologists
and everybody. But so I sat in the back of the
room. And so I saw this individual. And after
the meeting, I went to enter to go shake hands
with him. And he snubbed me. Boy, he pissed me
off. I was like, man, you know, once again, you
swallow, you got to swallow your pride. But to
me, it was like, Damn, we've been talking to
each other for almost a year, talking hunting
stories and camping and fishing stories. And
you're going to snub me like this. So I was on
the way home. I was furious. And guess what?
He calls and apologizes. And what he was doing
there at the farm, he was running around trying
to negotiate deals with other farmers. Well,
nobody wanted to partner up with him. And he
knew I was the only one that Gave it down about
him. So he calls me and later on I find out that
he had broken up His partnership with one of
the local farms not far from my farm And he needed
a partner. Hmm quickly so he calls me up and
we meet and He gives me this Or he made a deal
with me that he would like to use my facility.
He paid me $2 ,500 upfront and $2 ,500. He was
going to pay me five grand for the use of my
facility. And he was going to be responsible
with the airboats, everything, the containers,
the vehicle. He would even start getting the
permits. Remember, I had no clue how to do any
of this. In the meantime, I was going out and
begging people to let me put in a bid on how
much I was going to pay them to go on their private
lands, collect the eggs, and back prior to me
going undercover, egg prices were anywhere from
$5 to $10 an egg. What happened was all those
hurricanes had devastated Louisiana, so their
population had plummeted. that now they are depending
on states like Florida, maybe Georgia and Mississippi,
particularly Florida. So egg prices went from
five bucks to $45 a piece. An egg. An egg. So
there is a - I hit the market right. There is
a legal process for collecting eggs from the
wild, right? It just has to be permitted. Correct.
You have to be permitted. And there's two ways.
One is through a supervised collection, which
we had to hire biologists that would look at
the nest and basically you collect this nest,
skip this one, collect this one, skip this one.
And this way our population stays stable. And
then the other one is a set number where our
biologists would go in and say, This guy's got
5 ,000 acres. We've already done a census on
his property. You're only allowed to collect
250 eggs off this. Got it. So it's set. So I
met with this guy. He asked me for my social
security number, my driver's license, my farm
permit, everything. And he takes all this and
calls me up a couple of days later and he says,
I need you to come by my house, which you only
live like maybe two and a half miles from my
house, my UC home. And so I go to his house and
he, on his kitchen table, he's got all these
folders and paperwork of all these management
areas and public hunt areas that I'm familiar
with. I've worked - Yeah, that's okay, Morton,
yeah. And places like Avon Park bombing range,
which - has like 600 ,000 acres, I believe over
there. So anyways, I'm saying, Hey, what, what
is all this? And he goes, this is where we're
going to start collecting. I said, how, how,
how are you going to go through all this? He
goes out, I'll show you. So I go on vacation,
uh, to keep the wife happy. I told her this thing
is fixing to go down. We, we love to go camping.
So we took off to North Carolina and went camping
for a week. made up another cover story with
the bad guys. You know, I got to go meet my girlfriend's
parents and we're going to go meet in some cabin
up in North Carolina. So when you tell a lie,
I think, you know, that when you tell a lie,
you better know something about that lie. Like
my cover stories, for example, I'm from a small
fishing village here in our coastal, just north
of where I live here in Florida. And so if they
ever asked me, Hey, have you ever been down to
Bubba's bar and grill next to shell point road?
Oh yeah. I've been there numerous times, even
though I've never been there. At least you know
where it is. Yeah. Yeah. So I tell them we're
going to go up to North Carolina. Just in case
there's, Oh man, we used to camp, you know, North
Carolina. So anyway, long story short, I'm on
my way home and my UC phone, my undercover phones
keep kept going off, kept blowing up on emails.
And it's from FWC, Florida Fisher and Wildlife.
Congratulations, you got the permit. And you
got the bid on this property. Congratulations,
you got this property. And I'm like, man, I never
applied for any of these things. And so I called
the supervisor. I said, I think the individual's
name was Robert. I said, I think Robert just
hijacked my damn farm. Because what do you mean?
I said, He has applied for all these permits.
There must be 25, 30 properties he applied for
under Sunshine Alligator Farm, AKA Curtis Blackledge.
I said, too much. I'm not going to complain.
I want to see how far this goes. Yeah, for sure.
So anyways, the collection permits begin. We
start collecting eggs. from, especially from
one of our own wildlife management areas. Um,
and the way that the collection starts is you
go to a gate and you got to call FWC and say,
Hey, it's Curtis Blackledge. Um, I'm arriving
at such and such gate on the South, the Southeast
entrance, such and such property I'm going into.
And so everything's documented through our agency.
They had absolutely no clue that. That was another
way of us documenting, because as you leave,
now you have to tell them how many eggs you've
collected. So what we were doing was, for example,
even we had a biologist with us, we were collecting
every single nest along the way. We weren't skipping
nothing. And so if we were supposed to collect,
Let's say 250 eggs from one property. No, we'd
steal like 350 maybe four. Okay, so he's paid
a landowner. Yeah, that $45 for the 250 bucks.
Oh, you wouldn't you would 250 eggs, we would
pay him but we would steal the other eggs and
they would all end up at my farm. Our management
areas where there's a set number we're supposed
to collect. Once we get to the gate, we're supposed
to call dispatch again and say, Hey, um, it's
Curtis Blackledge. I'm leaving the place and
it tells you what time you're leaving as well.
And then we, today we collected 200 where I witnessed
us collecting 500. So all this was coming back
to the farm and. This thing hits so quick. And
the good thing about this was Robert offered
to pay for everything. Perfect. And thank goodness.
Agency didn't have to come up with anything.
I couldn't afford the containers he was bringing
me to put these eggs in. You know, and I wasn't
going to just call the agency and say, hey, I
need 50 grand to get this thing off the ground.
We don't have that kind of money. So he offered
to do everything, even hiring a helicopter. We
flew helicopters, recorded all the nests from
the air and jotted it down on our GPS's. He furnished
all the airboats and thank goodness because I
don't even know we had an unmarked airboat that
I could have used. Plus I did not want anything
to ever make it look like I was a game horn.
So I didn't even dare drive an airboat. I didn't
want to get out there. And all of a sudden, I
get a flashback. And I'm doing all my do -dads.
And them say, where the hell did he learn how
to drive an airplane? I wonder if this dude's
a game. I couldn't undercover anymore. And so
I stayed away from all of that. But my gosh,
he paid for everything. So there's enough money.
This Robert guy kind of appears out of nowhere
because you're the only farm that will really
work with him. But he's got enough money? There's
enough money and eggs? No, it wasn't him. It
wasn't him. Who's funding? We later find out.
Yeah, who's funding this helicopter? It's probably
the largest alligator producer in the United
States. It's up in Louisiana. No kidding. The
place is called Golden Ranch, but I will say
they were innocent out of this whole thing. Okay.
But we later find out that Robert, remember he
had a partnership down here, not far from my
business. This golden ranch used to come down
and buy eggs from him and hatchlings, I mean,
and take it back. So there was already a business
established. Well, remember Robert broke away
from the partnership and this guy just happened
to hire Robert. Hey, if you can get me some hatchlings,
I don't know how you're going to do it. I will
make a deal with you. You get me some hatchlings
and I'm planning on expanding. my operation down
there in Arcadia. Wow. And you will be responsible
for this. This was all found out. We find this
all out later. Okay. So, Robert had all this
connection that he could just say, hey, send
Ed a check for 15 ,000. I just bought so many
eggs from him and they would do that. They would
just send you a check for 15 ,000. And the only
reason we found that out is I got a call one
night after we're putting all this stuff together
and said, do you know a so -and -so? I said,
no. They would go out, our investigators, and
go interview this guy. I said, no, I don't know
nothing about alligator eggs. I build airboats.
I build the holes for airboats. And that hole
costs $15 ,000, for example. I see. We go to
another guy, hey, what do you build? Oh, I build
the cages. He was building his own air boats
using that guy. He was repping him up. Wow. That
became a, that opened up a whole other can of
worms. So anyways, after we got out, we get all
these things that the agency's calling me and
remember, your job basically as a undercover
is to observe and report. Exactly, document,
document, yeah. Write reports. And so at first,
I was having to come home a lot. And it's about
an hour and a half ride, write my reports and
go back. Well, I got tired of that. And when
my lieutenant found this out later on, he was
mad. But I began building false walls in my camper.
By the way, I didn't tell you, I ended up living
in a camper on the property. Yeah, the idea behind
that is if we need to go collect eggs way down
in the Everglades, I can look on our camper,
and instead of the agency paying for a hotel,
I've got a camper I can stay in. So I began building
false walls in the camper, in the barn, and this
way I could put my personal wallet in there,
my cell phone, my keys, and my computer. I would
write the reports right there on site. And I
damn near got caught one day because my gate's
about 100 yards from the gate to where my camper
was set up in the barn. That I began putting
up the motion, the alarm, but birds were also
setting those off. So now I went and bought this...
It's metal. It picks up basically your car frame
and you bury it in the ground and it sends a
signal from the module to the camper because
one day, I was sitting in the table typing in
my report and I hear a car door slam. I look
out the damn window. It's one of the bad guys
that I hung out with. So I grabbed my damn computer
and I threw it underneath my bed. What's up?
You know, shake hands. Hey, you want a beer?
Come on in, sit down. And since then, I was really,
really very careful then. So that's how I started
writing the report. So like I said, my job was
to observe it, report it, let the command staff
figure out what we're doing. So then comes the
hatching season. We're collecting eggs. I had
over $750 ,000 worth of eggs in my farm. And
in the corner, I had what I dubbed the poacher's
corner. While I was gone out in the field, and
I knew this was going to happen because I had
asked for additional help months earlier and
they kept saying, no, no, no, that's how secretive
it is. They didn't want nobody else involved.
Well, every time I'd come home at night, I'd
see more eggs that I know wasn't there in the
morning. And by the way, I had cameras everywhere.
I started using those game cameras, the older
ones, not the cell ones. And I put them up all
over the place and to see what was coming and
going. They thought that I was doing it because
at the time I farmed, we had partnered up, there
was a lot of farms that were being, eggs were
being stolen. That was another cover story. Hey,
I'm gonna buy, I'll buy the camera so nobody
breaks into our place, but literally they know
I was using that because I was downloading it
every day, especially when I'd come back from
and I'd see there's more eggs in the corner.
Where the hell did that come, I pulled my camera
and hell, here's these guys walking in with all
these crates and I could tell which. individual
brought it and all that. And then on inside the
barn, we had these little tiny cameras about
the size of my pinky fingernail that fit perfectly
inside the tool boards, you know, those boards
with all the... Pegboard, yeah. Yep, the pegboards.
And the problem with that is when I hear the
alarm off going off at the gate, I had to run
out in the barn and turn them all off. That's
just how technology was back then. So now I've
got all this data. We're hatching out all these
eggs. We collected almost 13 ,000 eggs. I think
we were the third largest in the state of Florida.
Some of these are legally collected, and a lot
of them are not. A lot of them are not. And they're
sneaking in and supplementing your supply with
illegal eggs, I assume, right? Exactly. And throughout
the whole time, Robert had this metal case underneath
his arm. He never turned that thing loose. And
you know it as well as I do. Every criminal organization
has some kind of paperwork somewhere. Well, that's
where it was hidden. The metal case. And I had
an opportunity to get to that case and started
snapping pictures of it. And that was the first
time I ever went up to Louisiana. And that would
have never happened if... Robert at the time
had also hired another buddy of his that worked
at the last farm that they worked at, and only
he and Robert were going to go up to Louisiana.
I wanted to see this place. Yeah, so why are
you going to Louisiana? Take the hatchlings up
there? Yeah, because remember, that guy paid
for everything. That all belonged to him. 2 ,500
or the 5 ,000 he was going to pay for me, or
to me, that was also coming from me. But as far
as this Louisiana guy knows, he's only getting
legal hatchlings from Florida. Yep. Right. Okay.
He didn't know any of this others. Got it. Anything
else, any other hanky panky. Got it. Okay. So,
oh, I'm sorry. Going back to, I was asking for
help. I started seeing all these extra things.
I was pulling my cameras and I'm telling you,
I need extra ice. So they brought in another
officer quickly just to, and they, they, they
told him what was going to happen. Next thing
you know, he's, he's coming up to my place, but
prior to coming to my place, I had called the
agency and I said, or my lieutenant and I said,
Hey, do we have a, uh, an unmarked utility trade?
He goes, uh, I believe one just came in that
one of our field offices. What do you need it
for? I said, bring it to me. I said, I'm going
to, I'm going to try and finagle my way to go
to Louisiana. He goes, how are you going to do
that? I said, Robert already has plans with him
and the other individuals name is Tommy. Him
and Tommy were the only ones trying to go. So
they brought me that trailer. That new officer
brought me that trailer. We got to meet each
other that night. And so I planted that trailer.
on the property. And every day that Robert would
come in, he finally, like after the second or
third day, he asked me, he goes, man, whose trailer
is that? And I said, that's mine. What are you
going to do with it? And we all knew that we,
or we all love to go hunting. So I told him,
I said, man, I found that, I bought it from this
old lady. Her husband died and he was going to
convert it into a camper. Well, that's what I'm
going to do with it. I'm going to put a little
Coleman stove in there, a bed, dah, dah, dah,
dah. And I said, why do you have any use for
it? He goes, man, that'd be the perfect way to
haul these hatchlings up. Because they were just
going to throw it in the back of the truck. And
I'd already warned him that, man, it's hot. You're
traveling. Well, I later find out Robert only
wanted to travel at night. And I think... The
reason was he could bypass all these agriculture
stations. Exactly. All the ag check stations
will be closed. So anyway, I told him, I said,
yeah, we can take it, but I've got to go because
it's all registered to me that I don't want to
take any chance. He goes, okay, okay, you can
go. And that's how I got to go up there. Perfect.
So we ended up making three trips up there, taking
over 10 ,000 hatchlings. and dropping it off,
and my gosh, you ought to see that facility up
there. Huge, huh? It's the size of a Walmart
shopping center, 60 -something thousand square
foot. Hell, they use a bobcat to pick up ice
and to put ice in all the carts where all the
meat's being skinned and all that. What they
do to it or with it, Robert tells me, is he's
got a tannery. This Golden Ranch has a tannery
over in Italy. and all these alligators were
going to the fashion industry, wallets, purses.
Ironically, that is exactly what Special Agent
Marie Palladini described 40 years earlier. Yes,
exactly. You're right. You're right. I remember
that. But no, those were going to China. They
were going to Europe for fashion handbags, but
also Japan, I believe. Japan. I knew it was an
Asian country. This way if a company like Louis
Vuitton calls and says, hey, I need 2 ,000 four
-footers, they take the hide over there and tan
it purple, pink, blue, whatever Louis Vuitton
wants. Now, he's got all these expensive meat
too because they have a special formula that
I was told. Purina the scientists or whatever
from purina designs to raise these things Alligators
are rated by their skin It's a one to a five
and I believe one is like the best or something
vice versa. I don't remember but He raises nothing
but the best hides in the world because when
we drop off these hatchlings, they're in a little
Let's just say 20 by 20 room and we'll dump like
five or 600 hatchlings, you know, eight inch
hatchlings in this room and they live in complete
darkness to where they're not scratching one
another. No scars. No scars or scar free. Actually,
even while we were raising this at my farm, we
were putting this chemical, it's actually for
chicken, chickens that cures diseases. We tried
to force them to hatch out, we would help them
hatch out, but we didn't want the umbilical cord
scarring their bellies. That's how critical we
were even down here at my operation. So we're
putting all these chemicals. We found one that
was really the umbilical cord that really scarred
their bellies. We put them in a little bit stronger
tub to kind of close that gap and make the hide
a lot better. So we would take all these, like
I said, we made three trips all the way up there.
And that part of it was pretty wild because I
don't know that it's ever been done through our
agency that we've gone out of state. Yeah. And
that's a logistical nightmare when you do that.
Cause I assume you had some cover, you had a
cover team, right? Even down to the track. We
had the old heavy trackers that you could put
up underneath the car frame. Well, I didn't want
to get caught doing that because they told me
to just leave it in the trailer. I said, no,
I'm not going to do that. I break an axle and
we throw all that in the back. The trackers there
on the side of I -75. I said, no, here's what
we're going to do. Get on your computer, call
me. I'm just going to put it in my damn overnight
bag. I put it between my jeans, wrapped it, because
they were trying to tell me it's not going to
go through the roof of the truck. I said, go
look at it. And they called me back and said,
no, we can see. You're at the farm. So it's going
to work. So I said, I don't know what else you're
all going to do, but we're headed up to Louisiana
in a couple hours. You do whatever you and that
that's the other thing Robert would never say
We're leaving next Tuesday at 6 p .m. And the
reason he wanted to leave at night Was like I
say he wanted to bypass all those stations. So
we put a huge Bladder in the back a tank a diesel
tank in the back of his truck. I think it held
an extra hundred gallons of fuel And I wired
up the whole Tank with the pump that we would
just pull into a rest area Open up our fuel or
get our diesel tank and fill up from there. We
didn't even stop at a gas station He wanted to
get these things up there You know to me that
we were legal because we he had the legal Transportation
documents to go all the way up because I was
taking photographs of everything so that's how
we made it up and That was one way that i was
able to get to that container and i guess everyone
that was following us they would take turns and
just. I get to maybe after two and a half hours
of driving another group of officers who come
in and follow us and the plan was you guys stay
at least five miles behind just keep an eye on
your computer. And this is basically for my safety
that they found out. I was working undercover.
We could be crossing one of those Louisiana bridges
and they just throw my body over the bridge.
I don't know. But they followed us all the way
up to Louisiana and back home. And I would have
to keep track either way that for the most part
Robert didn't drive. He'd drive us at you know,
when we'd leave and we'd get up maybe two hours
later and I picked up a quick habit with Robert.
Anytime he put his arms up on the steering wheel
and hugged the steering wheel and his head's
up on his wrist, I'd be looking at him and say,
oh my God, it's time for me to drive. I need
to look at me. Hey man, you want to drive? And
it's a 14 -hour trip up, 14 hours back. We didn't
spend a night. So one of those times, I was up
for like 52 hours. I was living off those five
-hour drinks, those energy drinks. He just wanted
to move the product as quickly as possible and
get back. And get back. Because no, we were also
hatching more. So was it $10 ,000 per trip or
$10 ,000 total? No, no, no. between three and
4 ,000 per share. So what's the value of that?
These are hatchlings now. What's the value of
10 ,000 hatchlings? By then they're about a hundred
bucks a piece. That's a lot of money. Each hatchling.
Each hatchling. So you've got, now what you've
documented here really well is, you know, this
illustrates what an undercover business is. why
it's so helpful and why it's so good to use.
Because what you've documented here is the systems
that is being used to illegally harvest from
the wild to disguise it with quote unquote legal
paperwork to make it look legal. And then the
classic laundering across state lines to an innocent
buyer who probably doesn't know anything about
the fact that these have been illegally collected.
And there's no other way. that a law enforcement
officer could document the scope of the problem
without doing what you did. And so I assume you
got Robert, and now you've got cases also against
all these other people who were collecting for
him and bringing eggs to your place. So how did
this wrap up? We're getting short on time. How
many people did you end up? How did the case
come to a close, and how many people did you
search? Well, it didn't really close then. I
was ready to call. I'll bet. The agency called
and said, hey, Will you stay in a few more months?
What's a few months? What's going on now? Well,
we have these individuals selling alligators
out of the Indian reservation, which is illegal.
I did that for an extra three months. I thought
there was 11 people involved during the whole
operation. This thing happened almost nine years
ago. After we did the takedown, There might've
been 14 people involved, if I'm not mistaken.
And Robert ended up serving three years. We tried
to charge him under the RICO. It's never been
done. Wildlife and RICO is uncommon. So they
took it through an appeal. Robert went to prison.
He decided to go ahead and plea out. But the
other four individuals were saying, hey, we didn't
uh, collaborate with Robert to do this. This
is not, this doesn't fall under Rico. So they
took it to an appeal. The judge found that, uh,
actually two things came out of this that we
could not charge them under the Rico statute
because the wildlife, you have to be injured
financially somehow. Well, fish and wildlife
doesn't own. the fish and wildlife in the state
of Florida. We only manage them. So what they've
done now, because we even tried to go through
with the Lacey Act. So now our legislators have
passed a new law now that any wildlife leaving
the state of Florida, I don't remember the new
law that was enacted, but the other guys still
ended up going back in. for a year to serve their
time. Because I had one individual, for example,
that shot a white ibis while I was fixing lunch
and I look out my camper window and he's doing
his GI Joe crawl after he just told me or asked
me, you ever eat one of them birds? And I said,
man, hell no. I said, are those things protected?
So anyway, he shoots one of these things and
I'm, I'm screaming, man. I come out and I'm,
I'm videotaping him by the way, with that follow
up. And, uh, I said, what, what the F are you
doing, man? I said, nah, the gunshot, the game,
game wardens are coming. I'm damn, we've got
this endangered bird you just shot. Um, so guess
how he gets rid of it. He takes the carcass after
we take the cut the carcass out. And I just happened
to be barbecuing some bubble burgers. And we
cut the carcass out. I put a little bit of lime
juice on it and some seasoning, threw it on the
grill. You took the carcass, threw it in the
alligator pond for the alligators to eat up the
evidence before the game word came. So anyways,
the other guys were charged with possession without
permits, all that. So they ended up serving the
youth. And more than anything, Robert and they
all have to pitch in and pay back over $100 ,000
in fines, pay back Fish and Wildlife for all
the eggs that was stolen out of the management
areas because throughout that whole collection,
there's also egg. fees that was supposed to have
been paid to the agency. None of that was ever
followed up. So they ended up paying over a hundred
some thousand dollars in fines, and that's going
to be for the rest of their lives. And jail time,
which is good. So you have them on the record.
And the new law you mentioned, I assume, is to
make it easier in the future to bring RICO charges
if necessary. Is that the idea? That as well.
And then with the IBIS, you're just documenting
any other crimes they commit. You know, funny
mention that he threw it to get rid of evidence.
He threw it into the alligator ponds for them
to eat. I've been on crocodile, saltwater crocodile
farms in Southeast Asia. And the only, the first
thing that popped into my mind was, you know,
in Thailand, a huge saltwater crocodile farm.
I'm just thinking to myself, I wonder how many
murdered people go into that pond, right? Disappear
forever. You know, this is a great story, Jeff,
I love the way it ties in with Marie Paladini's
experience. Let me, let me ask you kind of your
opinion as a, you know, former wildlife officer,
obviously a professional conservation law enforcement
officer. I think sometimes, you know, when it
comes to wildlife trafficking, you often hear
language out there where people talk about we've
got to end wildlife trafficking. We've got to,
you know, eliminate it. I always view that as
terribly naive and, uh, in an unattainable goal.
It'd be like saying, OK, we're going to catch
murderers so that nobody commits murder anymore.
It's just not going to happen. So when you hear
Marie Palladini works on this case 40 years earlier
and 40 years later, there are still people involved
in alligator egg laundering and trafficking.
Does that make you feel like we're losing the
battle? Or how does that make you feel as a law
enforcement officer? You know, when mine ended,
I heard a lot of complaints from other farmers
that they knew this was going on. Fish and wildlife
should have never ended this. I could tell that
undercover officer where else to go try. We got
to come home to our families eventually. But
no, for the longest time, it's been 10 years
now, almost 10 years. It quieted everything down.
Everybody got their act together. But you know
as well as I do, Someone's always going to challenge
something else to To make it better to do something
illegal, you know There's always going to be
a challenge but I just another one of these talks
here last week and somebody actually asked that
question Do you know? If this is still going
on well Ben, I'm kind of out of touch because
I've been retired now for so long, going on seven
years now, but, uh, there's just happened to
be an officer sitting in my audience that I actually
trained. And I asked him, I said, you know, you
tell me I've been out of touch. He goes, It's
not as bad because now everybody knows that they
got to call in to FWC and that was one way to
do all that. Plus there's the threat now, they
don't know if there's an undercover person out
there. No, they don't know. Actually, it's funny
you mentioned that. A book came out on it. Yeah,
I was just going to mention that. So yeah, please.
It was written by a former school teacher. Rebecca
Renner, right? Yes, that said just that. She
was a school teacher in the east side of Florida
somewhere. And that's what prompted this book.
One of her students came in and told her, Miss
Renner, I'm going to quit all this illegal stuff
I'm doing because you don't know who you're dealing
with. And she said, what are you talking about?
Some really good friends of mine got arrested
for collecting Alligator. Yeah, and the guy that
was he was an undercover game warden and you
just don't know who you are She she got so intrigued
about that that it took her over a year because
by then coded it So she read she wrote that's
what gave her the idea to write the book. I love
it. Yes, she She tracked me down. I made the
phone call, and I'll be damned. She wrote the
book. Yeah, so listeners or watchers, if you're
interested in reading more about this story of
this undercover work that Jeff did, the book's
called Gator Country. It's by Rebecca Renner.
Get it, read it, and it'll go into much more
detail about this story. Jeff, just to follow
up, we're out of time. I want to thank you so
much for coming on the program to talk about
this. Your point is well taken that these efforts
can deter future crime. And what I have always
said is, you know, we're not trying to, we know
we're never going to eliminate wildlife trafficking
and wildlife crime, but all we have to do is
just give animals enough space, enough to outbreed
the poachers. That's all they need to be able
to do. And also, also keep in mind that remember
I took over 10 ,000 hatchlings. out of the stable
floor. None of those hatchlings stayed here.
So I was afraid if this practice continued, we're
going to go back to saving, trying to save the
alligator. Exactly. To the endangered species.
Exactly. So we keep the pressure on, and we keep
the deterrence up. And that hopefully gives the
alligators and all those other species that breathing
room they need. Jeff, I know exactly what you
went through on this case. the frustration, some
of the stuff we didn't talk about. And I appreciate
the work you did. It's great work. Anytime somebody
goes in that deep and lives the life, there's
a tremendous impact on your personal life, your
personal relationships. We didn't even get into
that in this episode. But thank you for the work
that you did. And thank you so much for coming
on the show to tell us this story. I really appreciate
it. Well, thank you for having me. It's been
a pleasure. You bet. Alright everybody that brings
us to the end of this episode stick with us.
We've got more episodes great episodes coming
up this season and take care Nature's Secret
Service is written and produced by me Ed Newcomer
and is co -produced by the DH TV team here at
California State University Dominguez Hills Follow
us on social media and connect with us online
at naturesecretservice .com