It had all the makings of an undercover vice cop thriller – with one bizarre exception.
After communicating with a mysterious overseas “Mr Big” via social media, a New Zealand-based agent arranged to meet a man in the lobby of an Auckland hotel for what was promised to be the lucrative handover of illicit goods for a large stash of cash.
Like all the best movie stings, he carried with him a bag topped with just enough of the authentic product to hopefully fool the buyer. But it wasn’t cocaine, guns or any of the myriad other goods one usually associates with the criminal underworld.
This officer was carrying a payload of live geckos.
Details of the unusual sting were outlined for the first time on Friday as South Korea resident Gunak Lee appeared in Manukau District Court for sentencing.
The 23-year-old has had his four-day New Zealand trip extended by two months so far after his October arrest for “buying absolutely protected wildlife” and possessing protected species. The crimes carry sentences of up to five years when they are carried out for commercial purposes.
Lee’s trip will now be extended after Judge David McNaughton’s decision today to impose a sentence of one year and two months’ imprisonment.
The defendant was also ordered to forfeit the US$15,000 ($26,000) in cash that was to be used for the black market deal.
It was exactly the sort of message Department of Conservation (DoC) prosecutors, who had travelled from Rotorua for the hearing, were hoping for.
“These are not often before the court,” lawyer Mike Bodie said. “The department seeks a deterrent penalty when they are, because, to some extent, the world watches what New Zealand does.
“It’s a cultural offence to Māori and to all New Zealanders for foreigners to come to our country and help themselves to our taonga.”
A strong prison sentence, he continued, would make it clear to “all potential wildlife traffickers around the world that New Zealand will not be a soft target”.
Jewelled geckos are native to the South Island and are believed to live up to 35 years in the wild, according to the New Zealand Herpetological Society.
DoC has classified the species as “at risk-declining”, partly because of habitat loss, the society has noted on its website.
Selling threatened species may be an obvious crime, but because of their native status the underground gecko market would be illegal regardless of how well the population is doing.
“Under the Wildlife Act, all native wildlife, unless specified otherwise, is absolutely protected throughout New Zealand,” authorities explained in the agreed summary of facts for Lee’s case. “It is an offence to buy, sell or possess absolutely protected wildlife without lawful authority.”
For some, however, the financial rewards are worth the legal risk.
“Jewelled geckos are highly sought after in the international illegal reptile trade, particularly in Europe, due to their rarity, distinctive features and striking colouration,” court documents explain. They can fetch more than €7000 ($14,000).
Lee met with the undercover DoC officer about 7am on October 16, the same day he was scheduled to leave New Zealand.
The agreement had already been hashed out in online communications: 10 geckos for US$15,000.
“The officer had prepared a bag with several clear plastic containers – the top two accommodating two jewelled geckos which were visible,” court documents state.
“It had been pre-arranged that the defendant would check the top containers to confirm the presence of jewelled geckos and would pay the officer US$5000 in cash before returning to his hotel room to confirm the presence of all 10 geckos.”
But as he returned to his room, he was instead arrested. Investigators found another US$10,000 in cash and socks that would have been used to conceal the animals during an overseas flight.
The two live decoy geckos, described with a laugh outside court today as the department’s tiniest agents, were returned to conservation authorities unharmed.
Lee confessed immediately but insisted he wasn’t the mastermind of the operation. With an explanation largely mirroring those of methamphetamine mules frequently caught at Auckland International Airport, Lee claimed to be an otherwise unemployed courier who was lured into the role by a stranger whom he could not name or identify.
“He said that he had agreed with this person to act as a courier of New Zealand wildlife to South Korea and that he was expecting to be paid between 3 and 4 million Korean won [$3600-$4800] for doing so,” court documents state.
“He said that he had taken the risk because he had been told by the third party that if he was stopped at the border, he would receive a fine only and that it would be paid for him.”
He was not aware what he was doing was illegal, he told authorities through an interpreter. But in the same conversation, he outlined how he intended to hide the animals first inside socks, then inside cardboard boxes, then inside a suitcase as he flew home to Korea.
He insisted it was his first international smuggling attempt but expressed confidence all of the secreted animals would have survived the flight.
Defence lawyer Joon Yi told the judge today his client was naive and exploited by others overseas.
Having sat in jail for two months now, with nothing else to do but think about it since he doesn’t speak a word of English, Lee has come to deeply regret getting involved, the lawyer said.
Yi asked the judge to take mercy on Lee’s personal circumstances – saving the broader deterrent message for if the person who arranged the purchase was ever apprehended.
Since his arrest, Lee has co-operated with authorities openly and to the best of his ability, Yi said.
In high school, he had worked in a reptile pet shop for a man he regarded as an “older brother type”, then went off for two years of mandatory military service, he told authorities. When his military enlistment ended in October, he said he had dreams of opening his own reptile business.
But it was never his intention, he insisted, to obtain the New Zealand geckos for himself. He asked his former employer how he could earn some money and the man pointed him to the mysterious person who arranged the New Zealand meeting, he said. He claimed to have never met that man in person, having received his plane ticket and the cash via courier.
“He wasn’t explained the consequences,” Yi said. “He was vulnerable himself.”
If the judge was to impose a shorter sentence of three months, Lee’s family was willing to purchase him a flight home to save taxpayers the expense of housing and deporting him, the judge was told. Meanwhile, Yi argued, the forfeited cash would serve as a deterrent to others.
Judge McNaughton agreed with the defence that Lee appeared to be a hapless mule, with the worst offender having insulated himself from arrest by remaining overseas.
But he must have known enough about reptiles to understand he was getting himself into something not only illegal but offensive to New Zealanders, the judge said, describing the geckos as “strikingly beautiful”.
If the principal offender was ever caught, a starting point of four years or more would likely be needed “in order to send a clear message internationally that there is zero tolerance in this country for trading in absolutely protected wildlife, especially protected wildlife as rare and unique as the jewelled geckos”.
For having gone along with the plan for profit, a sentence starting point of two years was warranted, the judge said.
He then allowed discounts of 25% for Lee’s quick guilty pleas, 5% for the difficulty of serving a sentence overseas with no English and 10% for his relative youth, lack of previous convictions, naivety and eventual co-operation with authorities.
The judge also ordered six months of post-release conditions, but acknowledged the order was probably irrelevant as Lee is likely to be deported immediately upon release from prison.
Lee’s conviction marked several prominent firsts for DoC.
While there were a spate of reptile smuggling cases in South Island courts about a decade and a half ago, the last prosecution was in 2012.
At that time, the maximum penalty had been six months in prison, which troubled judges enough to ask Parliament for a solution. The maximum sentence for commercially motivated smuggling was upped to five years in 2013.
The undercover sting represents a new way of operating for DoC investigators, said Dylan Swain, the agency’s team leader for wildlife crime. But it’s also one that makes sense when considering that wildlife smuggling is believed to be almost as prevalent as the underground drugs and guns trade.
“So there’s no reason that we wouldn’t use such tactics,” he said.
Swain was reserved in what he would reveal about the latest sting, because some of the tactics used are still in play. But he said he was happy for illegal traders to be put on alert – and, hopefully, feel a bit paranoid – that they can’t trust everyone they deal with.
Swain said the investigators turned their attention to Asia after noticing the legal reptile trade increasing there in recent years. When there is a boom in the legal trade, a shadow black market boom often follows, he said.
Their counterparts in Australia had seen an increase in native species there being targeted by Asian syndicates, he said. New Zealand, they feared, was in line to be next.
Through contacts, authorities had heard of a person in South Korea “very, very interested in getting ahold of our native species”. So they started a decoy social media account and waited until the man contacted them.
By the time Lee was on his flight to New Zealand, wildlife authorities, working with police and the Ministry for Primary Industries, were prepared with a plan.
Although they always knew they wouldn’t take down “Mr Big” with the bust, access to Lee’s mobile phone and interviews with him have uncovered a trove of new leads, Swain said. And the case might not be over yet, he hinted.
The agency is now working with Interpol and foreign agencies to see who else they might be able to net from the unique – but likely to be repeated – operation.
Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.
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