14 Accused of Selling Parts of Protected Birds

Federal agents, seeking to crack a lucrative black-market business allegedly operating out of Gallup, N. M., arrested 14 people Wednesday on charges of trafficking in the bones and feathers of protected species killed to make Indian artifacts.

The Interior Department’s crackdown was based on an 18-month undercover operation targeting “this ugly and illegal activity,” Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel said in announcing the arrests.

The effort should serve as a warning to “those who believe they can make a quick buck killing and selling endangered wildlife,” he said. At least 50 more suspects are expected to be arrested.

Agents posed as artifact dealers and bought illegally killed eagles, hawks and other protected birds of prey, along with items made from their body parts, from game poachers and traders based in Gallup, a town of 20,000 near a Navajo Indian reservation.

The traders’ business was a profitable one, officials said. A full-length Indian headdress made with eagle feathers is worth as much as $3,000 “under the table” from East Coast and European collectors, said Clark Bavin, the top law enforcement officer for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. An eagle carcass can cost $250, with middlemen using the parts to make expensive Indian kachina dolls, traditional jewelry, fans and headdresses.

Federal law allows Indians to kill protected birds to get feathers and other parts for use in traditional rituals. But the poachers and dealers implicated in the trafficking operation were doing so solely for profit, “clearly knowledgeable” that their activities were illegal, Bavin said.

He said the arrests may represent just “the tip of the iceberg” in an underground industry worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Thousands of people are likely to be involved in the loosely knit network that exploited 50 species of protected birds and involved poachers, middlemen and collectors, Bavin said.

Among the 14 persons arrested Wednesday--11 of them in New Mexico--was a Gallup police officer charged with offering to sell golden eagle feathers. The other suspects were arrested in Texas, Idaho and Wisconsin.

Gallup, the hub of the wildlife trafficking network, is renowned for its authentic Indian jewelry and draws thousands of tourists and retailers to its craft shops along U.S. 66. Local officials said they were not surprised by the arrests.

“The feathers have been flying around here for centuries,” Police Chief Frank Gonzales said. He said Gallup authorities have not be able to curb the trafficking. “I doubt if most of my men could tell the difference between a turkey feather and an eagle feather,” he said.