FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         ENR
TUESDAY APRIL 2, 1996                              (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

                                 
FINAL DEFENDANT IN COCKATOO-EGG SMUGGLING RING SENTENCED TO JAIL 
           SUCCESSFUL NATIONWIDE PROSECUTION COMPLETE 


WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A federal judge in Los Angeles sentenced a
Tennessee woman to jail last night for her role in the illegal
smuggling of valuable and threatened wild bird eggs from
Australia to the United States.  This sentence concludes a
nationwide investigation and prosecution by the Justice
Department that resulted in convictions and sentences for 15
individuals totaling 186 months in prison.

     Theodora Swanson, 36, of Memphis, Tennessee, was sentenced
by District Court Judge David V. Kenyon to 37 months in jail.  
Swanson had been found guilty by a federal jury in July, 1995 of
three wildlife crimes in connection with her involvement in the
wildlife smuggling scheme. 

     "More than 800 eggs, which the court found were worth more
than $1.5 million, were illegally removed from Australia and
smuggled to the United States during this eight-year conspiracy,"
said Lois Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the
Environment and Natural Resources Division.  "This case
exemplifies the multi-billion dollar annual global trade in
illegal wildlife as well as the Department's commitment to
forceful prosecution of these cases."

     Court papers and testimony of participants in the scheme
during Swanson's trial indicated that members of the conspiracy,
including "mules" paid several thousand dollars for their
smuggling services, would travel to Australia each fall and
collect cockatoo eggs from previously mapped and photographed
nest trees, often in National Park areas.  The eggs were cared
for in home-made incubators until the smugglers were ready to
leave Australia, at which time the eggs were placed in home-made
vests worn under a smuggler's outer clothing. 

     Each vest carried approximately 40 eggs and it was common
for several smugglers to leave Australia with full vests.  Eggs
which began to hatch prior to departure from Australia, or during
the long flight to the U.S., were destroyed.  Once smuggled past
U.S. Customs, the surviving eggs were hatched, reared and the
resulting birds sold under the guise that they had been legally
reared from captive parent stock.

     The species involved in this case included the Rose-Breasted
Cockatoo, the Major Mitchell's Cockatoo, the Sulphur-Crested
Cockatoo, the Slender-Billed Cockatoo, the White-Tailed Black
Cockatoo and the Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo.  All cockatoos are
protected under the international Convention on Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (called "CITES") which
lists species whose existence is threatened by commercial trade. 
Australian federal law prohibits the export of cockatoos for
commercial sale and some of the smuggled species are specially
protected due to dwindling wild populations.  These birds sold to
U.S. collectors for prices ranging from $1,000 to $13,000 per
bird, depending on the species.

     The fifteen individuals convicted during this investigation
received a total of 186 months incarceration, 162 months
probation.  The leader of the conspiracy, William Wegner, 41, of
La Jolla, California, is presently serving a 5-year sentence of
imprisonment and has been ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.  

     This case was investigated by the Special Operations Branch
of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and prosecuted by attorneys
in the Division's Wildlife and Marine Resources Section, with the
substantial assistance of U.S. Attorney's Offices in California,
New York, Montana and Florida.

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