Illegal Hunting Ring Broken, Officials Say : Wildlife: Arrest is made in L.A. State authorities say the group sold $600,000 in bear gallbladders to Asian buyers.

State wildlife officials said the arrest on Friday of a Korean American businessman in Los Angeles has broken up an illegal hunting and trafficking operation that they believe marketed coveted body parts of California black bears to buyers in this country and abroad.

The hunting group, based in Los Angeles, allegedly arranged illegal guided tours in which at least 30 bears in remote forests of Northern California were killed since November, officials said. The bears’ gallbladders were sold in Los Angeles and in South Korea, bringing in as much as $600,000, game wardens said.

“The reason this case is so significant is that it is the first time we have solid evidence that people are being solicited from outside this country to come to California and kill bears illegally. We suspected it in the past, and now we have evidence,” said Greg Laret, deputy chief of wildlife protection at the California Department of Fish and Game.

Investigators said they expect to arrest about 20 other people throughout the state as a result of Operation Asian Ursus, a five-month undercover investigation by state Fish and Game authorities and the Los Angeles Police Department’s Asian crimes task force.

Poaching of American black bears to sell their gallbladders is considered a multimillion-dollar business throughout the West, especially in California, Washington and Montana.

The gallbladders--used by Korean, Chinese and Japanese apothecaries as a medicine to treat human stomach ailments and blood diseases--are valuable commodities because bears are nearly extinct in Asia. State Fish and Game Lt. Eddie Watkins said each gallbladder sells for $2,000 to $5,000 in California and $20,000 to $100,000 in Asia. Bear paws and other parts also are popular as Asian delicacies.

Law enforcement officials say illegal bear hunting appeared to slack off in California in 1988 after an earlier Fish and Game investigation led to the arrests of 75 people. But with this new case, it seems to be on the upswing again.

Arrested Friday was William Jin Taek Lee, 35, president of Come Land Maintenance Co., a janitorial service on Melrose Avenue that also served as headquarters of the hunting organization, known as the Ace Hunting Club.

Lee was charged with four felony counts--conspiracy to commit illegal guided hunting, sale of bear and two counts of offering to sell bear parts. He declined to comment to reporters as LAPD officers handcuffed him at his office Friday morning.

Watkins said Lee advertised guided bear hunts in newspapers in Korea and in Asian communities in California and solicited customers at the Western Gun Shop on Western Avenue in Los Angeles. The customers paid $1,500 each, and they and the guides allegedly killed bears near Redding and Yreka without valid hunting licenses.

Based on the going price for bear gallbladders, Fish and Game officials estimate that $600,000 could have exchanged hands at the Ace Hunting Club in its few months of operation. But Watkins said investigators suspect the profits could have been much higher. They say two or three times more bears may have been killed than the 30 cited by officials.

Watkins said undercover agents believe Lee also planned to expand his hunts to Washington, Alaska and Africa this year.

“It’s a very large operation,” Watkins said. “I think we’re really fortunate to catch him in his first year. . . . I think we got him just in time. His business was growing.”

An LAPD undercover agent posing as an Asian buyer had arranged to meet Lee on Friday morning and pay him $2,000 for a gallbladder. But when the agent arrived at Lee’s office, Lee allegedly told him it had already been sold.

Lee’s arrest was based instead on other evidence, including an alleged $1,800 sale of a bear gallbladder to the same undercover agent three weeks ago.

During the arrest, two automatic rifles and two altered rifles were confiscated from the gun store, and an envelope containing $9,000 in cash was seized from Lee’s house in Van Nuys.

No bear gallbladders or other animal parts were seized Friday, although Lee’s office contained numerous trophies of his hunts, including a large black bearskin draped on the wall, an elk head, a wild pig head and a gray fox fur. His office vault held about a dozen rifles and several handguns, as well as many boxes of ammunition. Photos on a bulletin board portrayed Lee and other men in a forested area with dead bears and other animals. At his home, bear meat was found in the refrigerator.

Bear hunting is allowed in California with a valid license and under strict conditions. But it is a felony to sell any bear parts and a misdemeanor to violate state hunting restrictions.

Watkins said records seized Friday could give investigators the identities of Lee’s hunting guides and customers. A warrant has been issued for one hunter in Northern California.

“This is just the beginning of the end with these search warrants served today,” he said. “I suspect we may have as many as 20 misdemeanor counts on 20 different people once we go through those records and discover who the other violators were.”

Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert M. Brodney said Friday that he plans to seek stiff fines and jail time for Lee. Maximum penalty for each felony is a $5,000 fine and a year in jail.

“Juries do not like people who harm wildlife. In this day and age, people are becoming so aware of the need to protect our resources,” Brodney said.

Worldwide, the illegal animal trade is estimated at $2 billion a year, including $100 million a year in California. Federal and state wildlife wardens say wildlife trafficking is increasingly well organized and often connected with narcotics and weapons dealing.

Although California’s population of 17,000 to 24,000 black bears is considered thriving, unrestrained poaching and trade could eventually devastate the species, as has happened to other creatures throughout the world, from elephants to abalone.

“We have a healthy bear population in California, but this is a significant illegal activity,” said Boyd Gibbons, director of the state Department of Fish and Game. “If this is a huge moneymaker, as we hear it is, it could do quite a lot of damage. Money talks.”