Lucinda Schroeder - Hunt for Justice: The True Story of an Undercover Wildlife Agent

Copyright 2006, 2010 by Lucinda Delaney Schroeder

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be ex pressly permitted in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be ad dressed to Globe Pequot Press, Attn: Rights and Permissions Department, P.O. Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437.

Lyons Press is an imprint of Globe Pequot Press.

Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Schroeder, Lucinda Delaney.

A hunt for justice : the true story of a woman undercover wildlife agent / Lucinda Delaney Schroeder.

p. cm.

E-ISBN 978-0-7627-9455-3

1. Schroeder, Lucinda Delaney. 2. Wildlife crime investigationAlaskaCase studies. 3. Wildlife crimesAlaska. 4. Undercover wildlife agentsUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.

HV8079.W58S34 2006

364.18dc22

2005028609

To Lonnie and Megan, with love

Contents

Preface

AS A FEDERAL WILDLIFE LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER , I spent mycareer enforcing the hunting laws of the United States and of foreign countries. In doing so, I championed ethical and legal hunting. Nothing in this book should be construed as being anti-hunting. My job was to stop illegal hunting and poaching that diminished legal hunting opportunities. I fully acknowledge and respect the tremendous contribution that hunters have made to wildlife conservation worldwide.

Lucinda Delaney Schroeder

Albuquerque, New Mexico

October 2005

Acknowledgments

FIRST I WISH TO THANK MY HUSBAND, LONNIE, for supporting me throughout my career with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and for being such a terrific husband and father. Also, thanks to him for going through this manuscript down to the most common denominator: the word.

Thanks to my daughter, Megan, for being the courageous and caring young woman that she is, and for being a role model to me in so many ways. Im so proud of her I could burst.

Operation Brooks Range would not have been successful had it not been for the professionalism of Special Agent Tim Eicher, to whom I add my thanks and admiration for his tireless contribution to preserving our nations natural resources. Thanks also to AUSA Steven Cooper for his work on Operation Brooks Range and for his undying support of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser vices law enforcement operations in Alaska.

Thanks from the bottom of my heart to Willie J. Parker, who believed in me from the beginning and whose support I drew upon when times were rough. Also, thanks to Larry Hood and Bill Zimmerman, who nominated me for the Ten Top Employees recognition I received in 1993. Ill never forget that.

There were many who believed that my story was worth writing and helped me by reading chapters and providing feedback. Harriet and Jeanne from Albuquerque stayed with me for four years poring over every word, as only good writers do. My enduring thanks to them both.

Thanks to Monica Faulkner in California who gave me dozens of helpful suggestions that got me off to a roaring start.

Overwhelming thanks to Diane OConnell with Words into Print in New York, who made my book proposal shine and led me to my wonderful literary agent, Linda Konner.

Total thanks to retired special agents Wally Soroka, Walt Kocal, and Adam OHara for the important details they added to this work, and for their years of service to wildlife law enforcement.

Very special thanks to Bill True (bill@debillpictures.com) in Minneapolis who read this manuscript several times and gave it the screenwriters magic touch that made scenes come alive.

More special thanks to Ivar Husby, Assistant Chief of the Norwegian national police department, who read chapters as he winged his way across the Atlantic to do undercover work in the U.S. His comments were the most unique.

Millions of thanks to Linda Konner, Linda Konner Literary Agency in New York, for her endless patience and professionalism in the way she han dled my book and, of course, me. Ill never let her go.

Many, many thanks to Lisa Purcell and Jennifer Taber, my editors at Lyons Press, who gave their magic touch to the manuscript and made it shine.

I wish all writers could be as blessed as I have been with the wonderful community of friends and associates who supported me and added to this work. Most of all, A Hunt for Justice , and stories like it, would not be possible if it werent for the dedicated special agents, wildlife inspectors, intelligence analysts, and wildlife forensic laboratory scientists of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Ive worked with for decades. Together we grew and developed our skills to do good things for the natural world we loved and revered. We con sidered our job a privilege, and its my hope that readers will see that spirit as the heart of this story.

Authors Note

The names of all defendants and the informant in Operation Brooks Range have been changed to protect their privacy. Also changed is the name of the chief of law enforcement for the Alaska Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the names of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services special agents in charge for Alaska and Denver, Colorado. The names of the Madrid booking agent and his company have been changed along with the name of the U.S. Embassy Regional Security Officer in Madrid, Spain, and the colonel in the Spanish Guardia Civil.

The name of The Bears Den is fictitious and its location has been changed to protect the identity of the true proprietorship.

The names of my family, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife chief of law enforcement and special agents, the U.S. Embassy employee in Madrid, Spain, the Spanish investigators in Barcelona, Spain, and the Assistant United States Attorney in Fairbanks, Alaska, are real.

It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt