The WildLife: Wildlife Crime & INTERPOL, David Higgins

David Higgins discusses INTERPOL and wildlife trafficking and reveals the many challenges facing law enforcement in stopping it. He explains to “The WildLife” host Laurel Neme how INTERPOL, the world’s largest international police organization, fights wildlife crime and describes several INTERPOL-assisted undercover operations. Listen as he takes us inside Operation Baba, a five-country sting that targeted the illicit ivory trade in five African countries, and Operation Oxossi, a joint investigation with the Brazilian Federal Police that stopped a massive trafficking ring smuggling live macaws, their eggs and other wildlife out of Brazil into Europe for the pet trade dead in its tracks.  David Higgins is a criminal intelligence officer specializing in wildlife crime as part of the INTERPOL Environmental Crime Programme. Previously he worked for the Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts as an Assistant Director of Compliance and Enforcement.  Before that, he served in Cambodia as an Environmental Law Enforcement Advisor and in Tasmania, Australia as a Wildlife Ranger for the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service and Police Officer for the Tasmania Police Service. Since August 2008, he has led INTERPOL’s efforts against wildlife crime.  This episode of "The WildLife" aired on The Radiator, WOMM-LP, 105.9 FM in Burlington, Vermont on December 21, 2009.