Original subtitles

[people chattering]

[people chattering]

[camera operator] Hold on.

-[Eric Goode] Okay. -Okay, it's recording.

[indistinct chatter]

[Eric] How much? How much?

This one is 200.

[Eric] But you don't have this one.

[indistinct chatter]

This one here.

[chatter continues]

[indistinct chatter continues]

[Eric] Ploughshare tortoise is this beautiful tortoise.

It's golden, it has this domed shell.

It has this bizarre gular scute under its chin,

and it lives well over 100 years.

They're also the rarest tortoise on Earth,

and they're only found in a very small area

in northwestern Madagascar.

Less than 10 square miles.

So, the combination of all these things

gives it this mythical, almost religious status.

They have an incredible value on the black market.

An adult ploughshare tortoise today

is easily over $100,000.

What a beautiful tortoise.

[Lesley Stahl] The turtle and its land-loving cousin, the tortoise,

have found an unlikely protector

in a man named Eric Goode.

[Eric] In 2007, I got involved

in ploughshare tortoise conservation.

We tried everything to protect these tortoises.

We hired forest guardians.

We put transmitters on the tortoises.

We even engraved their shells to deface them

so poachers wouldn't collect them.

But in the end, the wildlife trade

was so insatiable, and they disappeared.

[seller speaking indistinctly]

[Eric] Today, ploughshare tortoises

are extinct in the wild.

And no one else is more to blame...

than Anson Wong.

[♪ dramatic music playing]

[dog barking]

[George Morrison] This is the first bow that I've made from scratch.

Love primitive things...

and primitive ways.

Thank goodness for YouTube.

At my core, I'm a bow hunter.

It's such a one-on-one pursuit, one-on-one type of hunting.

I love getting in close with it,

so you have to use your hunting skills

rather than your shooting skills.

We started Operation Chameleon

with a new focus on what was going on internationally.

Ultimately, guys like Van Nostrand,

Wolfgang Kloe, and Tom Crutchfield,

they led us to the head of the snake.

And that is your ultimate goal.

Take the head of the snake off.

Anson Wong was termed the godfather

in the reptile world. Everybody knew who he was.

-[reporter 1] Anson Wong. -[reporter 2] Anson Wong.

[reporter 3] Anson Wong.

International wildlife smuggler in Malaysia.

Most notorious and flagrant reptile smuggler in the world.

[Ken McCloud] The Wong cartel is extremely dangerous,

and he has the corrupt officials in his pockets.

[George] We really knew very little about his background.

There was information that his family

was big in the banking industry in Singapore.

He was educated in England.

[Steve Chao] He is super intelligent.

He speaks multiple languages.

English, Bahasa Malaysian, Bahasa Indonesian, Mandarin.

[George] When I started hunting Anson Wong,

I just couldn't get to him.

It was so difficult

that I coined the term "fortress Malaysia."

[♪ dramatic music playing]

He had his connections with the royal family.

He had his connections with the customs people

and the law enforcement community.

So, the term "fortress Malaysia"

meant that we couldn't touch him there.

[Steve] There's a reason why Anson Wong

has chosen to base himself out of Penang.

Throughout the centuries, Penang has been a key conduit

for a lot of the criminal syndicates

that operate within Asia,

specifically the triads out of Hong Kong.

Anson Wong knew that he was under indictment

in the United States, and-- and probably wouldn't come here.

So, part of Operation Chameleon was trying to figure out

where to maneuver him to get him arrested.

Anson was smart, there's no question about that.

So, to get Anson apprehended, it was gonna take time.

We want this guy.

[Pam Morrison] George!

Yep.

In Operation Chameleon, we thought if we put an agent

near Southeast Asia, it might be more conducive

to get Anson Wong.

-Drink. -[Pam] Hawaiian sun.

[George] I established a new name, a new cover.

[Pam] There's Dada and Carly.

[George] My wife had agreed to move to Hawaii.

-[child] Hi, Mom. -Hi.

-Say hi to everybody, Carly. -[George indistinct]

Carly was a year and a half when we moved over there

and Nicole was almost nine.

[George] Happy Thanksgiving!

[Pam] George and I probably were married about two years.

[George] When Pam and I got married,

I told her specifically

that for a wedding ring, need to have something

that doesn't look too much like a wedding ring,

'cause I didn't want people to know that I had a family.

Otherwise, it could put them in some kind of danger.

-[Pam] [on video] Yes, yes, yes. -[George] [on video] This is all we do,

-just lay out here on the beach. -[Pam] Yeah.

[George] Soaking up the sun.

[Pam] We just thought it would be a great adventure

to go to an island and live.

But, uh, it was a different experience

when we-- once we got there.

Yeah. It was hard

'cause you couldn't really make friends over there.

Couldn't let anybody too close in the inner circle...

-Mm-hmm. -...without exposing what I was doing.

Long-term undercover is not instant gratification.

[Pam] [on video] What is that big box?

[George] Undercover operations don't stop for Christmas,

because you're still thinking about it.

[George] Whether you're down on the beach, watching TV,

or whatever you're thinking,

trying to figure out the next move.

I was obsessed with catching Anson Wong.

He was constantly on my mind.

[Pam speaking]

-[child giggling] -[George speaking indistinctly]

[Pam speaking]

[Pam chuckles]

[George] I spent 24 years working undercover.

I posed as a taxidermist.

I was an ivory trader.

I was an eagle poacher.

One of the first things you do when you start an operation

is we set up a, uh, a red herring.

We set up a coral business.

We dealt in your everyday coral and shells,

kinda your ticky-tacky stuff that you find in shops

out on the coast or in Hawaii,

and operated under the name of George Ross.

Coral was portrayed as our main business,

but then also start the new operation called Pac Rim

and branch into reptiles.

Our line was, "I don't know anything about it,

but I know it's a good business."

[tail rattling]

So, that'd get people talking.

The reptile people love to tell you what they knew.

And some of these people spoke very readily

about the illegal trade.

[seller] This is bearded.

[Bruce Weissgold] The Operation Chameleon business front in Hawaii

was really run on a shoestring budget.

They were told, "Hey, guys, you're going out

"to run this undercover investigation for a few years.

"And guess what? You need to be self-sufficient.

"You need to run a successful business.

"And you need to stay in business

"without us giving you money to buy animals

while you're doing the investigation."

[George] We literally spent eight hours a day

taking care of animals.

[Ken] Well, since I spent most of my life

working with reptiles,

it was my job to keep these animals alive and healthy.

[seller] Yeah... [indistinct]

[Ken] But I would also provide guidance

as to what to ask for

and what the correct prices would be.

It's called an Australian northern tongue skink.

Commercial value of this animal is about $400.

[George] Pac Rim started buying reptiles,

and then we had to get rid of 'em.

So, my method of selling the reptiles

was to monthly put out a fax of what I had

and send it to all the dealers around.

I also put an ad in Reptile Magazine.

And from that ad, discovered a man

named Beau Lewis.

[Beau Lee Lewis] This is a Uromastyx aegyptiacus.

It comes from Egypt.

They get about twice this size.

Um, and he's beautiful.

Hey.

I was living with my parents at the time,

out in Arizona.

I didn't have many friends.

I was born with a neuromuscular disease

similar to muscular dystrophy.

I had surgeries throughout middle school and high school.

I graduated high school at 17.

I was kinda being pressured to get a job.

And I liked reptiles, so I was trying to find a way

to make money doing that.

So, I was ordering, like,

common variety, like, iguanas.

Try to sell to local pet shops.

I didn't really make much money.

And I was gonna see if I could import.

I thought maybe I could buy wholesale animals

and sell them to the pet stores that way.

You know, make more money.

And that's where I came across Anson Wong's name.

Handwrote him a letter.

I told him I was a kid in Arizona

looking to get into the business.

One night about midnight, a fax came in

on my fax machine.

And it was from Anson Wong, and I was very excited.

[phone line ringing]

We talked on the phone a few times.

He was really nice to me.

And we became friends.

I had no idea that he was infamous.

[snake hissing]

Around the same time, I responded to an ad

out of Reptiles Magazine,

and that ad was for Pac Rim.

[George] Beau Lewis called my 800 number

and, uh, started talking. He was a very talkative guy.

He said that, um, he was looking to get into reptiles.

He asked me if I could get Gila monsters...

which are illegal.

I told him that I can try to get whatever he wants.

[George] And it wasn't long till he started, uh,

guess the best way to say it is bragging

about his connections with-- with Anson Wong.

[Beau] He got excited.

Um, he was like, "Oh, you know Anson?

I'm trying to deal with him now."

And of course, it necessitated at some point,

me traveling to Arizona as George Ross.

[Pam] [on video] There's George.

He's gonna go spear fishing. Catch us dinner.

[George] As George Ross, it was important

to portray myself as somebody with money.

[Beau] Hanging out with George was kinda cool.

He was maybe a 50-something tall guy,

very serious and successful.

He didn't know much about reptiles,

but he wanted me to help him kinda understand.

I saw him as a friend, you know,

somebody that had kind of the passion I-- I had.

I wanted to be like him, I wanted to be successful.

He made me feel important.

[birdsong]

[phone line ringing]

Hey, Tommy.

Let me just ask you, it's a long shot,

but what advice would you give me

to get in touch with Anson Wong?

Who do you think would know Anson the best?

And who's [bleep]?

[Tom Crutchfield speaking]

[Eric speaking]

[reptile dealer speaking]

[Eric speaking]

[reptile dealer speaking]

-[sea birds crying] -[George] There it is.

-[Carly] Here, fish. -[Pam gasps]

-What do you think, Carly? -[Carly] Good!

[Pam] What kind of fish is that?

[George] Anson Wong was a big fish,

and I had to move slowly.

I started contacting Anson by fax.

-[machine beeping] -Made an order of, you know,

just your common legal reptiles.

Tried to build the relationship.

[on video] This is the four boxes received from Anson Wong.

Every few months, Anson Wong kept making shipments.

Boxes that had legitimate reptiles in 'em,

they were legal shipments.

And eventually, I began to be able

to talk to him on the telephone.

[phone ringing]

And that's when I got my first chance

to evaluate the personality of this guy.

The mystique of Anson Wong was very difficult to explain.

He was so articulate, so intelligent...

and had you captivated listening to his every word.

[phone ringing]

And I would start dropping hints that I was interested

in a little bit harder-to-get, more exotic things.

I would let him know that, yeah,

I'm okay with buying something illegal.

I had set the trap.

I was gonna let him and Beau make the first move.

-[thump] -[phone ringing]

-[Carly] Mm! -You loves coconut.

[Carly] Yeah.

Okay. Who would be calling me?

[Beau] So I called George.

I told him that Anson was gonna have Gray's monitors.

Gray's monitors have been thought to have been extinct

for 130 years.

They were just rediscovered.

[Beau] They were from the Philippines.

It's one of the only fruit-eating monitors.

It's highly protected.

It was a very desired species. They didn't exist.

George said, "Man, if we can get 100 of those, we'd be rich."

[George] Beau convinced Anson

to send him the Gray's monitors.

And Beau is telling me about this scheme he has

to get in illegal animals from Anson.

[Beau] I knew somebody that worked at FedEx,

so I devised a system.

Packages would be shipped from Asia

to an abandoned house.

That way, the driver can scan it like it was delivered

and just drop it off to me.

If it got caught, there was nobody to be in trouble.

[agent] We're gonna get started here, so...

We were intercepting these shipments as they came in.

And the whole package weighs 23 kilos.

-Man, look at that. -[agent] I thought I heard

a little hiss come out of this bag.

[George] Might be a Gray.

[agent] I never seen one of these in my whole life.

Big money there, boy.

[George] We would pull 'em off the line.

Our inspectors would photograph 'em

and send 'em on to Beau Lewis.

[Beau] Waiting for that first box

was like a kid on Christmas, man.

I was-- was nervous. Um, I was scared.

And when I finally got to open it,

it was-- it was just like, seeing these animals

that you only get to see in zoos.

I sold them for $2,400 each.

One of the first times I ever made any money.

[birdsong]

[George] Anson started sending numerous shipments

with illegal animals.

[Ken] Chinese alligators.

False gharials. Flat-tailed tortoises.

Madagascar ground boas. Spider tortoises.

Unfortunately, we couldn't place any of these animals

in a zoo environment, because by then,

we knew there were dirty curators,

like Tom Schultz.

And there would be a leak immediately.

So, I took them all home

where my wife and I cared for them

for a period of about four years.

[snake hissing]

At one point, we had over 100 Madagascan tree boas

in one bedroom.

[people chattering]

[customer] We are here at the snake show.

About to get a cobra up on my leg,

around the pubic mound, and right up here on the side.

Be pretty sweet.

[George] The yearly Orlando Breeders Expo

was a huge event.

And booths everywhere, all your biggest dealers.

[Beau] The first year I went to the Orlando Expo,

nobody knew who I was yet.

I was like a nobody.

[♪ soft funk music playing]

The second year I went,

it was like I was rookie of the year.

Like everybody knew me.

I had a table at the show, Beau Lewis Rare Reptiles.

I just had a picture book of animals

and I was brokering from Anson.

George came to hang out with me a little bit at my booth.

It was well known in the trade

that you went to Orlando to make illegal deals

in the back room.

I rolled up with some money, got the penthouse.

Tried to make a statement.

[♪ soft funk music continues playing]

I had a penthouse across from Hank Molt.

Guys like Hank, they were all legends to me at the time.

He was like a myth. I didn't know he existed.

But we talked, and he would hold court

and tell all kinds of crazy smuggling stories.

[people chattering]

Once they found out I knew Anson,

people were wanting to talk to me,

wanted to let me know what they wanted.

It was surreal, you know, I started off with--

just-- just as a kid...

trying to sell green iguanas to pet stores.

And within three years, I ended up

partners with the Pablo Escobar of reptiles.

By then, I had heard rumors of Anson Wong

being tied in with the Chinese mafia.

He was always nice to me, but, um,

I'm sure he could be a dangerous guy.

Beau Lewis was intrigued by smuggling.

He was intrigued by being an associate of Anson Wong

and being one of these big guys.

[Bruce] I was at the expo.

I looked up, and there was George standing there.

And standing next to George was a young guy.

I was like, "Oh, I know who this is."

I was a good enough actor to not break.

But it was really memorable to me

because of how young he was.

[Beau] I met a lot of people at the show,

but I was still trying to hang out with George.

We had dinner with a bunch of people I had met.

He paid for everybody.

I remember a friend of mine, he told me

something wasn't right with George.

He wouldn't look him in the eyes,

and he warned me about him.

And I told him, "No, it's-- he's okay, he's cool."

[bird squawking faintly]

With Anson Wong, there's always an excess of death.

These photographs show the aggressive animals

he used to hide the smuggled animals.

He would put legal animals on top that were so frightening

to the inspectors, that they won't look below.

And here, we have six fairly large monitors loose in a bag.

These are common water monitors.

The teeth were really dangerous,

but the tail could also get you.

Uh, photographs of dead animals.

[George] [on recording] There's quite an odor to the boxes.

Agent McCloud has removed 12 dead monitors.

The illegal animals were always in good shape,

because that would be a loss of money to him.

He would have to reimburse if these animals didn't survive.

But the other animals

that were used to conceal the illegal animals...

...there was always a high rate of death.

[Ken] Some of these reptiles are incredibly intelligent,

and Anson Wong

just let 'em sit in boxes to die.

[birdsong]

[George] [on recording] Seven dead tokay geckos,

eight dead Shinisaurus,

and five dead water dragons

imported from Anson Wong.

[Beau] It was like a disease for me.

All that money I was making with Anson,

I didn't spend any of it on myself.

I put it all back into the animals.

And I just wanted more, I wanted things

that I'd never seen before.

[tape whirring]

[Ken] Ploughshare tortoise

are some of the most complex species

of reptiles in the world.

To me, they're priceless.

They're so rare, so endangered,

and so close to extinction.

The collectors know the value of these animals

to the penny.

Incredible price tags on their heads.

[George] During the investigation,

we knew there had been a theft

of ploughshare tortoises in-- in Madagascar.

[reporter 1] One of the heists of the century.

[reporter 2] Seventy-five rare tortoises were stolen overnight in Madagascar.

[reporter 3] Dozens of ploughshare tortoises.

[reporter 4] The black market trade

is now so lucrative, crime syndicates are involved.

[Steve] Seventy-five ploughshare tortoises

were stolen from the sanctuary...

in a brazen attack.

The break-in and theft of the ploughshare tortoises

had to be the highest monetary value event

that had occurred in wildlife trafficking.

[Eric] The animals were worth millions of dollars.

How is that possible?

Up until that point, no one would even imagine

having a ploughshare tortoise.

And suddenly, they appear in the black market.

It blew my mind.

The demand in the exotic animal trade was relentless.

Sadly, today they are extinct in the wild.

-[tortoise grunting] -And it has been nearly impossible for them

to breed successfully in captivity...

-[tortoise grunting] -...outside of Madagascar

and the surrounding islands.

The clock is ticking on their survival,

and all of it started with that break-in in 1996.

[George speaking on video call]

[airplane engine roaring]

-[airplane PA dings] -[indistinct chatter]

[♪ soft funk music playing]

This is ground zero for the wildlife trade.

This is where the godfather lives.

[snakes hissing]

[♪ soft upbeat music playing]

[snakes hissing]

[Eric] When I asked one of our fixers

if they could call Anson Wong on the phone

'cause they had a Malaysian number,

they were scared.

They said it's dangerous, a-and they were just saying

that there's different gangs in Penang.

And maybe-- Obviously,

Anson's probably connected with some of them.

I mean, I honestly wasn't worried,

but they kind of started freaking me out.

[phone line ringing]

The hope is that his ego will get the better of him.

-[phone line ringing] -[Eric] I want him to know

that all the other people will be in the story.

Tom Crutchfield, Hank Molt, Mike Van Nostrand.

[phone line continues ringing]

But Anson Wong, you know,

you'll be conspicuously missing.

[phone beeping]

Hm. Alright.

Oh, shit. Anson just called.

Um, let's go over here.

I don't know if I have good enough service.

[person speaking indistinctly]

[phone line ringing]

-[phone clicking] -Hello?

Anson?

Anson, yes. I just saw--

I'm in a bad place, but go ahead.

[Anson Wong speaking on phone]

Can you hear me?

I mean, listen, you have a lot of stories.

So, just--

I need four hours. Four-- four hours.

I'm in--

Perfect. I'll call you then.

-[phone beeping] -[waves lapping softly]

[♪ eerie music playing]

[thunder crashing]

[phone line ringing]

-[phone clicking] -Anson?

[Anson] Eric?

Okay.

[Eric] Okay. Bye-bye.

[♪ eerie music continues playing]

[Eric speaking]

[birdsong]

-[crew] Speeding. -[Eric] Okay.

[Anson sighs]

Anson, why did you do this interview?

I, for the record, have never, ever done an interview.

-[Eric] Um... -[Anson claps]

The reason I'm doing it

is because I wanted to set the record straight.

When they labeled me...

"the Pablo Escobar," I had a good laugh.

Do I seem like a violent person to you?

[laughing]

Mm, with the reptile trade,

we're-- we're a bunch of people that just loves animals.

And we try to make a few dollars out of it.

My father, he had a crocodile farm.

And I grew up in that farm.

[crocodiles hissing]

But Malaysia...

placed the saltwater crocodile under the protected list.

So, he sold every crocodile

and set up a company dealing in skins.

[club thumping]

We were dealing in monitor lizards.

We were dealing in pythons.

Eventually, every village we went to

to collect the skins would offer me live reptiles.

People would say, "That's illegal here.

You can't do that. You're not allowed to do that."

But when there's a demand for it,

there's nothing you cannot get for the right price.

So, I said, there has to be a market for all this.

There was a directory of reptile dealers.

So I-- I would send letters to everybody.

Tom Crutchfield...

we sent him a lot of things.

He's loud, obnoxious.

And basically, he's just winging it.

Ah, ah-- pff.

He's a showoff.

And he's always got these shorter-than-short shorts.

Then, of course, he got arrested.

And because of that,

I began dealing with Strictly Reptiles.

You know, everybody knows Strictly Reptiles.

Mike Van Nostrand is fun. I like him.

He's a little bit loud, but he's sincere...

compared to Tommy.

And he doesn't cheat people. He pays.

But he-- he told on me.

And I was surprised. I thought he was a nice guy.

And this is-- this is what happens.

So, that's how I got in trouble with the United States.

And I just wanna say, wildlife officers,

they know nothing.

And that's on record, I hope.

The big thing that I realized was,

to be successful, you have to know a lot of people

in different countries.

Operating out of Malaysia alone

doesn't allow the inventory to grow.

So, I had Indian contacts, Sri Lankan contacts,

New Zealand, Czech Republic, Tibet, Peru,

Chile, Paraguay, Argentina, South Africa, France,

Cameroon, China, Asia.

-[Eric] Madagascar? -Oh, Madagascar.

Through the '80s,

early '90s, it was going so good.

[Eric] Is it fair to say your income was in the millions?

I think that would be incriminating.

[chuckles]

[phone ringing]

And then one day, I was contacted

by the company Pac Rim.

Pacific Rim.

[♪ eerie music playing]

When George Ross started to ask for rare animals...

initially, I had that weird feeling, but...

I was greedy, I guess.

[static crackling]

[George] Yep, you need a well-heated room.

-[George] Oh, really? -Yeah.

[George] As we were investigating,

Wong kept coming up with very exotic

and very expensive things

like the ploughshare tortoises or Komodo dragons.

[dragons hissing]

[George] Things that are just unheard of in this country

and impossible to get.

[Eric] What's the only animal that you can't get?

There must be something you cannot get.

No, there's nothing you cannot get for the right price.

You can get anything.

[Eric speaking]

Pandas as well.

[George] So, he offered these real exotic reptiles,

and I accepted.

[George] That's when we discovered

this guy named James Burroughs.

James Burroughs was introduced to me

by Beau Lewis.

[Beau] James Burroughs was a courier for Anson Wong.

And me.

He used this suitcase called Big Blue

to courier reptiles from Malaysia to San Francisco.

These photos show Burroughs coming through the airport

with that shipment that had the Komodo dragons.

[Anson] James Burroughs was a very amiable person.

The first time he came, I said,

"I'm not ready. Give me a few days."

And he said, "Fine. Send me up to Thailand."

Put him in a cab, I would give him money.

He would go to massage parlors, prostitutes.

And he would come back four days later,

and he says, "Okay, you guys ready?"

[George] Burroughs found himself a girlfriend,

which appeared like it was probably a prostitute,

fell in love, and decided "I'm gonna keep doing this,

"and I'll get my trips paid for by Wong,

come over and see this girl."

So, he had a good time when he was working for me.

[George] And I found out during the investigation,

that Wong himself was married,

but definitely had a wandering eye.

[Steve] Anson Wong's biggest vice...

beyond wildlife trafficking is women.

He was notorious for having mistresses

in every place that he went to.

[snake hissing]

-[car horn honking] -[whistle blowing]

[Steve] At one point,

he had a young Malagasy woman

to be one of his mules.

A lot of Malagasies are so poor,

they would scramble at the idea of traveling.

With pocket money when they arrive with hotel paid,

and with their allowance, they would go shopping.

[Steve] She was desperate for a job.

And somewhere along the way, a relationship formed.

[thunder crashing]

At the Kuala Lumpur airport,

they discovered illegal reptiles

in her suitcase.

[handcuffs clicking]

And she is arrested and put in a jail in Malaysia.

[cell doors clanging]

At the time, she was also pregnant...

with a child that she says...

is Anson Wong's.

But when she was caught, he simply disappeared.

[Anson] The lady started mentioning the name Anson.

She had a child in prison.

But of course, everyone mentions Anson.

It's just your word against mine.

[George] We were finally ready to set the trap

to get Wong to where we could arrest him,

to lure him out of Malaysia.

After quite a few shipments had worked out,

um, George stepped up the game.

George called me one day...

and said, "My boss wants to expand the business."

That he had an investor that was gonna front all the money.

And he said, "Bear gall bladder."

[reporter] A thriving illegal market

has developed for bear gall bladders,

which many Asians believe have medicinal benefits.

[George] Told him I knew big game hunters

that could get bear gall bladders in the US.

I have seen grizzly gall bladders, they are huge.

They would be extremely profitable.

-[bear bellowing] -When George mentioned,

"We want to go into the gall bladder business..."

it made sense to me.

[George] This is it.

Anson Wong, four years of work, of my heart,

and my soul, my blood, and my sweat, and my tears.

He says, "Can you meet me in Vancouver?"

I said, "No, Vancouver's too cold."

[George] I'm gonna set the trap.

Does he run away or does he come?

And two days later, he called me and said...

"What about Acapulco?"

[♪ upbeat music playing]

[Anson] He called me and said he was getting me a boat.

And he mentioned something else.

[♪ upbeat music continues playing]

George Ross planned a yacht full of hookers,

and I think Anson was pretty happy about it.

[George] We could bring him in there.

He'd probably feel safe 'cause everybody knows drugs

and things like that come through Mexico.

We knew extradition was tough,

but we worked with the Mexican government

to get their permission.

There were beaches with girls,

you name it, that would entice him.

[Anson] Had images of women,

bikinis, the sun.

Alright.

[♪ upbeat music continues playing]

[♪ music stops abruptly]

I just want to tell everyone out there,

if it's too good to be true, it is too good to be true.

[plane engine roaring]

[George] When Anson Wong landed in Mexico City...

I walked down the causeway to his flight...

sat down and acted like George Ross.

[Anson] I told George, "I don't know how you look like."

George said, "I'm gonna wear a T-shirt with an iguana on it."

And I told him, "Fine, I'm gonna wear

a T-shirt with corn snakes."

I said, "Hey, George." He extended his hand.

[George] We had a little bit of small talk.

He's tired, you can tell. It's a long flight.

He'd been on the plane for a while.

Anson was still in an international area,

so he could not be touched.

We started walking down the hall towards customs.

I'm playing the part.

I had to act like, "Let's see, where do we go here?

I'm not sure."

And there are just plainclothes Federales everywhere.

And they knew exactly who I was and what's going on.

At one point, a Federale looks at me

and he points, as if he thought I didn't know where I was going.

And I'm thinking, oh my gosh.

[chuckles] If Wong sees that...

We went up into immigration

and we're in a line, and the line's slow,

and everybody's trying to get through there.

George was so close to me.

His coat lapel was just brushing against my back.

And the hair at the back of my neck,

like, started to stand up, and I brushed it off.

This guy, he says, "Por favor, señor."

Gets his passport out, they stamp it.

And bam, they grab him.

I'm not sure he really comprehended

what had just happened,

that I was an agent, but he's looking at me,

and I'm standing there, and he's getting put in cuffs.

I remember watching him and feeling a sense of pride

in the fact that I just...

duped you, you know? [chuckles]

I just looked at him and I said, "Fuck you, George."

I went upstairs, they stripped me naked,

and they went through every inch.

You wouldn't like it.

[Beau] The day before I was gonna leave for Mexico...

George called me and said that he was gonna have his partner

bring me $10,000 cash to my house

so I could bring it down to George.

I didn't want Beau Lewis

to end up being thrown in a Mexican jail.

So, I convinced Beau

to come down a day later.

When Anson Wong was arrested, the call went to the agents.

I walked down my long, uh, driveway.

[agent] Go, go, go!

[Beau] And several cars of agents surrounded me.

And that's when I realized George Ross,

my friend and mentor, was not George Ross.

[announcer] Arizona's news leader,

Fox 10 News at 9:00.

[Troy Hayden] Who could exploit a face like this?

An Arizona man arrested in connection

with this huge smuggling ring.

A slew of charges,

among them, conspiracy and smuggling.

The main suspect in this ring is a Malaysian man.

His name is Anson Wong, and authorities

picked him up on a sting in Mexico City.

[Robin Garrison] It's alleged the smugglers

were also in possession of ploughshare tortoises

stolen from a breeding project in Madagascar.

...will take whatever steps are necessary, here and abroad,

to stop the black market in endangered species.

Lewis' attorneys have advised him

not to talk about the case, especially to the news media.

[Beau] There was like five news vans in the front yard,

and I was on the local news.

I was the main story

ahead of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.

[Gina Salazar] We were able to talk to his father

briefly this evening, who told us

he thought it was just a hobby, his son has muscular dystrophy,

and he thought he was just showing, you know,

becoming an entrepreneur of some sort.

[Beau] I was a naive, stupid kid.

I realized that I was in trouble.

DOJ said I would get nine years

if I went to trial and lost.

If I would do a deal, agree to testify...

I would get three years.

[birdsong]

I damn sure wasn't gonna testify on Anson Wong.

I knew that he could be dangerous.

You wouldn't wanna cross him.

Beau Lewis kept his promise.

So, I'd like to thank him for that.

I hope he's well.

But James Burroughs turned into a snitch,

like, really quick.

[agent] [on video] Mr. Burroughs is being cooperative.

He's being interviewed at this moment.

[James Burroughs speaking]

[Anson] James Burroughs was lucky he was arrested.

'Cause you know what?

One time, my driver snitched on me,

and my driver is dead now.

-[birdsong] -[Anson chuckles]

[George] We had done the most effective operation

in the history of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

[Ken] It was very satisfying.

I worked 17-and-a-half hours a day, seven days a week

to keep these smuggled animals alive and healthy.

So, after four years,

to finally see Anson Wong sentenced to prison,

it was a great accomplishment.

-[Anson speaking indistinctly] -[George] Anson Wong did serve

one of the longest-ever sentences

for wildlife-related crimes.

[softly] Come on, baby.

[crunching]

[Anson] I did two years in a Mexican prison,

six years in the USA.

[Beau] I was sentenced to 22 months,

and I finally went to prison in 2011.

I lost everything.

It was very painful.

I didn't have anybody to talk to about it

that would understand, and, uh, I was alone.

Um, it was a lot of years of depression.

I spent the last 25 years trying to hide this.

[George] Well, sure, I could've stopped him

and lost Anson Wong, the head of the snake.

No, you're gonna let Beau do what Beau is gonna do.

He did it all himself.

It wasn't me setting it up for him,

it wasn't me paying for it.

[inhales sharply]

Beau put it together.

[birdsong]

[Eric speaking]

[Anson] Mm.

[Eric speaking]

You know, um, if you've been

to some of the conservation centers,

it's not difficult.

You can have the guard working for you for $100.

You want females, you want males.

They will send you photographs, you just pick and choose.

Corruption is so rampant in Madagascar.

They will happily bring it to your hotel.

These animals were absolutely decimated in the wild.

And it drove the species much closer to extinction.

[George] It's why we do what we do.

You protect some of the most endangered

and special animals in the world

from somebody like Anson Wong.

[Ken] Our quest is to stop

the smuggling and trafficking

in endangered species.

[Eric speaking]

No. I'm banned forever.

[Anson continues speaking]

I brought in star tortoises to the United States.

[Eric speaking]

-Yeah. -[Eric] Wow.

-In my backpack. -[chuckles] Yeah.

[Eric speaking]

Actually, that's a nice feeling.

That's the adrenaline rush.

I like it. Yeah.

[Ken] Well, I'm not a psychiatrist,

but with the reptile dealers,

poaching and smuggling

certainly seems like an addiction.

It's a sickness.

These people are obsessed.

They can't stop.

[line ringing]

-[Eric] Hey, Bryan. -Hey.

[Eric] Hey, so I just heard he's kept this tortoise

in the most unbelievably, you know,

just suboptimal fucked up way.

[Bryan Christy speaking]

[Eric speaking]

[Bryan speaking]

[Eric speaking]

[Ken speaking]

-[Eric] Oh, my God. -[Ken] I don't think he... [indistinct]

[Eric] Look at this. Oh, my God.

This is like having a panda bear in your bedroom.

[Ken speaking]

[Ken] This is the holy grail.

This is under alarm systems.

I'm not gonna take a chance.

This is, other than my wife,

the most important item in our home.

[Bruce] People leave their jobs with souvenirs.

Yeah, I took-- I took my favorite clicky pen

from the office when I retired.

Other people in other lines of work

take other things from their job

-when they retire. -[Eric] Bruce, Bruce, Bruce.

But all kidding aside, he has the very thing

that he was trying to prevent other people from having.

-Mm-hmm. -[Eric] I mean...

Yeah, there's a certain irony there.

[Eric speaking]

Do you think there's any level of hypocrisy?

No, I don't.

There is a huge difference

because a conservation officer

would never do anything to harm.

We care about the wildlife.

We care about the wildlife and their habitats.

[Eric] This ploughshare is so deformed

from being in this tiny tank.

-[softly] Fucking guy. -[Eric] Like, how is it that--

-the pathology's the same. -It is the same.

It's a sickness that doesn't end.

After Anson Wong got out of prison,

he was bigger than ever.

[Anson] You put me in jail, but nothing has changed.

I came out prospering.

I came out with everything intact.

I just stepped back to where I was.

And you know what? Operation Chameleon

made no difference.

Because it's-- it's like chopping off

the head of the hydra.

You chop off one finger, six sprout.

[snakes hissing]

[crocodile growling]

[chicken bawking]

[Bryan] This is a story that is full

of contradictions and ironies.

Today, as global economies become more powerful...

China, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia...

places that were strictly supply countries

are now some of the biggest demand countries

in the world for reptiles.

[Kiti Pong speaking]

[Bryan] Around the world,

the demand for reptiles is on a scale

that we have never seen before.

[Hank Molt] Human beings are so fraught with inconsistencies.

In the end, no one's really winning.

Prohibition isn't working

because people are gonna continue to want

that which is forbidden.

It just makes you want it more.

It's something that you would just really want so bad,

you can't believe it, and no one else has it,

and it just doesn't matter with the price.

I mean, people would pay it.

You know, when I first started this,

we believed these reptiles

were here for us to buy and sell.

When we saw them like you would a material thing

that's worth X amount of dollars...

it saddens me deeply

that I took 'em from the wild in the first place.

These...

these Monsters of God.

Yeah.

Yeah, well, that's what they are.

[♪ gentle music playing]

[heartbeat thumping faintly]

[egg cracking]

♪♪