01x04 - Operation Chameleon

[bunniefuu]

[cars zooming]

[insects chirring]

[birdsong]

-[Eric Goode]
He lives in there, right?
-[teen] Yeah.

-Does he have any windows?
-No.

-He has no windows?
-Just two doors.

-What's in there?
-[both] Venomous snakes.

-Just him and
the venomous snakes?
-Yeah.

[snake tail rattling]

[laughing]

[Eric] Collectively, the amount
of venom in this room

could k*ll what?

[Al Killian] Between the mambas,
the Gaboon vipers,

the rattlesnakes,
and the cobras,

probably, uh...

half the people in Florida.

[snake hissing]

I don't socialize
a lot with people.

I'm more of a recluse.

I'm married to these animals.

But I'm most intimate
with my king cobra.

Uh, basically,
he hates me, okay?

He hates everybody,
but you know,

being with that type
of disposition,

he puts on the best show.
[laughing]

[cobra growling]

Back in the 1980s,
I hooked up with the WWE.

-[crowd cheering]
-[announcer] Look at this.

[Al] I supplied king cobras
to Jake "The Snake" Roberts.

[crowd booing]

[announcer] In the bag,
the king cobra, no doubt.

[Tommy Crutchfield]
Jake the Snake, here we go.

[Jake the Snake] Here's a man
that used to be a real man.

[Tommy] Al Killian set it up,

and I helped him
with the whole thing.

[crowd cheering on video]

This is probably the first time
I've looked at this

since it happened.

[Jake Roberts] For the match
with the Macho Man,

we decided, hey,
let's go all the way.

-[announcer] No, don't do it!
-[Jake] Come on.

-[announcer] Macho!
-[Jake] Come on, Macho Man.

We got a 15-foot king cobra.

[announcer] What's he doing?

Get out of there, Macho!

Oh, no. That's the creepiest
looking snake

I've ever seen in my life.

[Jake] When it came time
for the big shot,

that f*ck fired up.

[announcer] Wait a minute,
the snake is biting him.

The snake is biting him!
The snake is biting him!

Can we get some help?
The snake is gnawing
on the arm.

This is not supposed to happen!

As the snake digs deeper
into the arm.

Jake the Snake has lost it.
He's lost it.

Please, somebody, get him
outta there, for God's sake!

That's the most iconic moment
ever in wrestling.

[announcer]
Jake Roberts is sick!

You got 20,000 people standing
in their seats screaming.

[crowd chanting]
Jake the Snake! Jake the Snake!

[Al] People have a fascination
with these animals.

[crowd] Jake the Snake!
Jake the Snake! Jake the Snake!

But the addiction
comes when you get the fever.

[announcer]
Ladies and gentlemen,
this conference is scheduled...

[Al] That's when you'll do
anything to have 'em.

[air boat whirring]

-I see it right there.
-Where?

-Oh, there? You see the gator?
-You see that big mound?

Right behind it!

-That's a female.
-Wow, wow, wow.

-Right there, the gator.
-Get me up next to her.

Look at this gator,
look at it protecting its nest.

It's protecting its nest. Jesus!

[Tommy] There is no finer animal
than this.

And what you're seeing
right now is a real alligator

in the Everglades
in the wild with a nest,

a female gator that's been here
for many, many years.

-[gator growling]
-[Eric] Whoa, whoa, whoa!

[Tommy] Let her--
let her come on up.

[gator hissing]

That hiss is like a dog barking
or growling,

it's all a bluff.

[gator hissing]

[Tommy chirping]

-[gator hissing]
-[Tommy continues chirping]

[♪ dramatic music playing]

[Tommy]
Life is all about choices.

When I got involved
with Hank Molt,

that was the worst mistake
I ever made.

[Bruce Weissgold]
Because of Hank Molt,

Tommy Crutchfield was indicted

for smuggling Fiji Island
iguanas to the U.S.

[Tommy]
I got five months in prison

for the Fiji iguana thing.

Once he got out of prison,

he was very unhappy
and very bitter.

That trial and everything

cost tens of thousands
of dollars.

It was hard on his reputation.

[goose honking]

[Tommy] All of a sudden,
you're persona non grata

and no one wanted
to work with me again.

I'm just sitting

with a destroyed
reptile business.

I didn't know what to do.

[goose honking]

Okay, I'm going through
an article here.

It's called
"Wild Cargo, the Business

of Smuggling Animals."

It was this picture
that really got my attention.

That's Mr. Dang holding
an albino Burmese python.

Nobody had ever heard of
an albino python at that time.

[Bryan Christy] Nat Geo went out
and did a major story

about wildlife trafficking
around the world.

It's designed to shed a light
on wildlife crime.

The problem is reptile smugglers
read National Geographic.

I thought, who in the hell
is this guy,

and how can I get this?

Well, people are always
interested in things

that they can't have.

And when it comes to albinos,

there's a lot of interest
in them.

I was in New York City.

I had a shop on Third Avenue.

We were importing and exporting
live reptiles and amphibians.

I had a friend of mine
in Bangkok, Thailand,

and he hired somebody
to, uh, break in and steal them,

take them from Mr. Dang.

I wanna sell 'em and get rid
of them as soon as I can.

It only took a day
to call up Tom Crutchfield.

It's all about
who you know, I guess.

Alfred Ojeda
said he could offer me

three albino Burmese pythons.

But I have to buy all three,
and the price was $21,000.

So, I took a second mortgage
on the house

so that I'd be able
to afford to buy it.

[Penny Crutchfield]
Tom was willing to risk

everything to get that albino.

I was not happy about it,
but he still continued on.

[Alfred Ojeda] He put his house
up for collateral

and he paid for them.

And I shipped them down to him,

the same wooden crates
that they came in.

[Bob Clark] I remember
exactly when I saw that snake.

I was sitting in a barber chair

and I was reading
a National Geographic.

I saw it on there and I thought,
well, I can't even believe it.

-[snake hissing]
-It was the snake

of my young dreams.

These mutations
occur in the wild very rarely.

If there's 10,000,
maybe there's one

that's gonna look different.

Rare, special, desirable.

I knew a little bit
about genetics,

and I had a master's
in herpetology.

I thought, oh, boy,
if I could have that thing,

I could breed albinos and maybe
I could make some money.

[snake hissing]

It was some months after that,

I heard
Tommy Crutchfield's got it.

I contacted Tom
and I said, uh, I want that.

[Tommy] Bob flew down.

I have pictures of him
holding the first one.

[Bob] It was a wonderful
albino python.

Bright yellow, red eyes.

Beautiful, wonderful,
it was the best thing ever.

Well, then he didn't
wanna sell it.

I said, "Well, how 'bout this?

"I'll breed it,
we'll share the babies,

we'll have a project,
we'll go halfsies on it."

-He said...
-It will cost you $10,000

for the breeding loan.

I own half

of all of the offspring
the first year.

[Bob] I brought the snake back,

I bred it, I had some babies.

These babies,
they looked normal,

but they carried
the albino gene

and they had the ability
to make albinos later.

I was breeding two gene carries
to each other,

I got seven of 'em.

But once I was
breeding albino to albino,

I could get 30, or 40, or 50
in a clutch of eggs.

Some of 'em
have a lot of babies.

And so, I could double
my production.

The first year I had seven,
the next year I had 70.

It was exponential
from that point.

[♪ dramatic music playing]

[soft squelching]

[Dwayne Cunningham]
The babies that were produced

could go for as much
as $15,000 each.

Everybody wanted 'em.

[audience cheering]

[Bob] The snake
in the Britney Spears video,

that snake was loaned to her
from Siegfried and Roy,

which is a snake
that I sold to them.

Bob and I both made
an incredible amount of money.

[Eric] Did you ever make
a million dollars in a year?

-Boy, I hate to say that.
-But you made money.

Yeah, I have made millions
of dollars breeding snakes.

Bob understood
the science of it,

that that snake could produce
a lot of what we call morphs.

You could
interbreed things and create

genetic cross variants
and different colors.

Not only albino white,
but gold and purple,

and pretty much anything else.

[Bryan]
Suddenly, people were breeding

genetically distinct forms
that no one's ever seen before.

You can be in that business,
it's legal.

[Tommy] For the first time,
people realized

you could actually make
a living breeding reptiles.

[seller] Our income this year
from the business

will probably be in
the neighborhood of $350,000

to $400,000.

Probably doing $250,000
to $300,000 a year in sales.

We made about $2 million
within five years.

This is a scaleless corn snake.

[Hank Molt] And they could
produce these things

just like a baker
could create cookies.

[Mike Wilbanks]
This is the male, we move him

from one to the next.

I specialize
in color morphs like this.

This is a-- a black-eyed
leucistic ball python.

And the first one of these,
I sold for $200,000.

Whatever you want, we can put
a different paint job

-on it for you.
-[Eric laughing]

You sound like you're talking
about custom cars.

-Are you into custom cars?
-I'm not into--

I'm only into custom snakes.
[chuckles]

[Bryan] These guys
are turning spots into stripes

and brown snakes,
and yellow and white snakes

and giving them
crazy names like Dreamsicle,

and Golden Child, Ghost Baby,
and Tangerine Dream.

[seller] Spinner Blast.
Diablo Blanco.

This is my leucistic
monocled cobra.

Oh, what a beautiful
fricking cobra.

There's all these
different color morphs,

all these different
snakes to get.

Not only was just snakes,
but any sort of reptile.

Gators, lizards, turtles,
you f*cking name it.

It's a f*cking addiction, dude.

[Tommy] This morph craze,

that's probably what really
set my business off

more than anything else.

[Dwayne] Tommy set up
a breeding facility.

[Tommy]
I had albino monitor lizards.

Albino iguanas.

I sold albino alligators

for $175,000 each.

I was back.

-[birdsong]
-[dog barking]

[Eric] So, this is what
everyone's talking about.

-You're breeding these.
-[Tommy] Yeah.

-No, don't hold it.
-Oh, just do that. Oh, I see.

-I don't have the best traction.
-Is that incredible or what?

[Eric] They're like, you know,
science fiction almost, right?

-[Tommy] Yeah.
-You kinda cornered the market
on these guys, right?

[Tommy] Only because I'm good
at breeding them.

A lot of people
have the same ability.

They just don't produce
the animals.

[Eric]
You make money with morphs,

but you love finding
just the unique animals

-and not just morphs.
-[Tommy] I just like-- yeah,
I like all reptiles.

Me being in the business
I was in

is like an alcoholic
owning a liquor store.

[Adamm Smith] Tom, he knows
how to breed reptiles.

But he's not a businessman,
management-wise.

So, I was the manager.

And even though a lot of money
coming through, you know,

we do 10, 20, $30,000 of stuff,

but it tended to disappear.

A lot of the money just went
back into buying more reptiles.

[Penny] Tom always wanted more.

He wanted more rare,
he wanted the best.

He wanted the most unusual,

no matter the consequences.

[Tommy]
The urge to have something,

it wasn't even so much
about money.

It had more to do
with obsession

of acquiring the animal.

[Eric] So, if someone offered
you something ill*gal,
you took the bait.

I-If it's something
I've never had before

and I want it,

and I have to bend a corner
to get it,

absolutely.

And, uh, a-and I did just that.

I had met two Germans
by the name of Wolfgang Kloe

and Frank Lehmeyer.

And they were smuggling stuff
out of Madagascar.

[Penny] They started coming in,

and they'd bring their stuff in.

They don't care about
Fish and Wildlife

or laws or rules.

They just-- they didn't
really give a sh*t.

I'll never forget
up at the shop.

In walks Wolfgang with
two big boxes full of turtles.

And it became very apparent
very quickly

he had no paperwork.

He just flew in through Orlando

and didn't declare 200 turtles.

Tom, in his infinite wisdom,
had Penny type up

some kind of document saying
they were legally imported

to the US and sold legally
to Crutchfield Reptiles.

Had it notarized, very official.

[stamp clicking]

[Tommy]
And these Germans were bringing

a lot of Madagascan tree boas
back to the U.S. illegally.

Madagascan tree boas,
they're absolutely beautiful.

[Hank] It's mostly gold,
black, brown blotches.

Pretty snake, big,
long sharp teeth.

[Tommy] There weren't many
in private hands.

They said
they could get babies.

Did I want 'em?

Hell yes, I wanted them.

[insects chirring]

What they were doing
was actually

getting pregnant females
from the wild.

[Hank] And they would
suitcase these things

out of Madagascar
into Frankfurt, Germany,

'cause it was easy to get stuff
into Frankfurt.

And when they had babies,
a team in Germany

recruited college girls
from Canada

with a promise
of a trip to Europe.

[airplane engine roaring]

[♪ upbeat drumbeat playing]

They would fly
to Frankfurt, Germany.

Have a wonderful trip.

-[♪ upbeat music playing]
-[accordion trilling]

-[sausages sizzling]
-[glasses clinking]

Be given the baby boas with
the details of what to do...

and just innocently
carry back a suitcase

with non-venomous reptiles
to Canada...

-[bubble gum popping]
-...figuring they
wouldn't get caught.

And if they got caught,
they would just be told,

-"Don't do it again."
-[stamp clicking]

And then, there would be
the second tier of guys...

-[trunk slamming, echoing]
-...who would drive
the reptiles

from Toronto to Florida.

[Tommy] They were doing it
all over the country.

But I was probably one
of their biggest customers.

Which was a problem.

[Penny] Tom didn't realize
that Frank and Wolfgang

were compromised
somewhere along the line.

[snake hissing]

[mouse squeaking]

[George Morrison]
I've always been
a big game hunter.

Got my first deer
when I was 18 or 19.

Shortly after that,
I got hired by
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

and started hunting people.

[officer 1]
Police with a search warrant!

[officer 2] Okay, step out.
Face away from me.

[George]
When I joined the branch
of special operations,

we started looking heavily
at the reptile trade.

From the beginning,
we knew it was a problem,

but we didn't realize
the extent of it

until Strictly Reptiles
went down.

We knew through the
intelligence we had gathered,

the most prolific
wildlife smuggler in the world

was Anson Wong.

But Anson wasn't alone.

There were smugglers
and ill*gal dealers

all over the world.

We wanted to go
after everybody.

And so, we developed

one of the biggest
undercover operation

in the history of the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service,

called Operation Chameleon.

[Bruce] So, Operation Chameleon
was a multi-year effort

by the Special Operations
Branch

to investigate international
reptile trafficking.

Anson Wong was still
a logical target.

But we were working on cases
that span the entire globe.

[George] Thailand, Taiwan,

Hong Kong, Indonesia, Germany.

As you flip through here,
you see many of the names

that we were aware of,

the people that were involved
in the-- the ill*gal trade.

These were all guys
we were looking at.

Two obvious targets
became Frank Lehmeyer

and Wolfgang Kloe.

We knew they were poaching
and trafficking

from Madagascar.

Fish and Wildlife Service
needed to get inside.

So, we brought in
the best of the best.

[Eric] How many reptile people
do you think

you've put in prison?

-[Ken McCloud] Hundreds.
-[Eric] Hundreds?

[Ken] Maybe.

Been notified twice of contracts

that have been put out
on my life.

I've been concerned,
but I try not to let it

interfere with
my lifelong quest

to save endangered
and protected reptiles.

As a kid, my parents
had a map on the wall.

The first place I put an X
was on Madagascar.

Because I thought
the Madagascan day gecko

was the most beautiful animal
I'd ever seen in my life.

I would live
and breathe reptiles.

Read every book
the libraries had.

Memorizing scientific names.

And it became an obsession.

Almost a drug addiction.

I would do anything that would
put me near reptiles.

I started
as a wildlife inspector

for the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service.

An inspector would cautiously
open the package away from him

using what we call a snake hook
to make sure

that there are no snakes
that have escaped from the bags,

what they call snake bags.

It is a rather attractive
animal.

[Ken] When I was accepted
as a special agent,

I was delighted.

Was particularly good
at undercover work.

I was known as Mark Phillips,

a businessman running
a sportswear company,

and collector
of high-end reptiles.

[recorded message]
Good day, you have
reached Kiwi Sportswear,

Office of Mr. Mark Phillips,
distributor.

Mr. Phillips is on another line
or unavailable

-to take your call.
-[machine beeping]

A trafficker needs to be
a really good liar to succeed,

and an undercover agent

needs to be
an even better liar.

And the best undercover agents
were the best liars.

[Ken] [as Mark] Have a chance
to give any thought

to the radiated tortoises,

if you might have
a group price for those?

I could speak the language,
talk the talk,

and walk the walk.

[person laughing]

[George] I was Ken's
direct supervisor in the field.

People used to tell me, said,
"You gotta get that guy

to quit working so much."

I said, his work is his life.

[Ernest Mayer] I'd call him
an expert in reptiles.

I mean, he was well-educated,
knew how to handle 'em,

knew how to identify 'em,
knew where they came from.

[Ken] [as Mark] Sure.

[Ken]
So, I just used my skill sets

and focused on catching

the target
of the investigations.

[beeping, dial tone]

[Frank Lehmeyer] Hello?

[Ken] Hello, is this Frank?

Frank, this is Mark Phillips
from the United States.

[Ken]
Frank Lehmeyer is a friend

of a Canadian
that I had befriended.

[on recording]
He said that we have
a mutual interest in reptiles

and that we may be able
to work some deals together

in the future that would be
beneficial to both of us.

He explained to me
on the phone, very openly,

that they just returned
from Madagascar

and they had
a number of radiated tortoises.

[Frank] [on recording]

[Ken] [on recording]
Saturday? Great.

And we set up a buy.

I flew to New York.

The Germans did not come
into the United States.

They were going
to send a courier.

[Ken] I carried a video camera

in a little suitcase.

[Ken] I met with the courier.

We went up to his room.

And he went to the drawer
of the dresser

and pulled out a box full of
Madagascan radiated tortoises.

I was able to prove
that I was cool

and, uh, could be trusted.

[machine beeping]

[Ken] [on recording]
Hello, is Frank home?

[person]
Yes, wait a minute, please.

[Ken] Pretty soon, Wolfgang Kloe
and Frank Lehmeyer

were talking to me
on a weekly basis.

[Frank] [on recording]
Hello, this is Frank
from Germany.

[Ken] [on recording]
Sorry I'm calling you so late.

I was detained
at a business meeting.

Yeah, actually,
if you could give us

one green and one brown,
that'd be great.

[Ken] I wanted to get them
in the country.

[Ken] [on recording]
Are you planning on coming
over to the United States?

[Ken] Eventually, they told me
they were going to bring

some Sanzinia,
or Madagascar tree boas,

to the States.

[Ken] [on recording]
I would certainly like to buy

some of your extra babies.

[Frank] [on recording]
We'll definitely
come to the Expo

the 16th of-- of August.

[Ken] We set a date
to meet at the, uh, Expo.

This was my chance
to get the German cartel.

[Ken] [on recording]
I'll probably be in
what I normally wear,

just Western boots
and blue jeans,

and I've kind of got
blonde hair with a ponytail.

[Willard Scott]
Central Florida Herpetological

is having its Breeders Expo
in Orlando.

"Herpetological," does anybody
have any idea what that means?

[anchor]
Something about snakes.

Hey, how did you know?

-The stage manager told me.
-[laughter]

[reporter] The only way
to get over your fear of snakes

is to accept and respect them.

And I can tell you at this time,
I definitely respect them.

[Hank]
People from all over the world

would descend
on Central Florida.

It was considered
the place to go.

c*ptive breeders
were coming to the Expo

and showing their stuff.

[seller] The-- the markings
and the coloration

on that animal, it's exclusive.

The Expo was the Woodstock
of reptile shows.

The young man
who lost his ball python

in the men's room, please report
to the microphone counter.

[George] All your well-known
dealers were there.

[Tommy] This is an albino
American alligator.

It's one of only seven
known in the world.

This can be had
for about $125,000.

[Wayne Hill]
It was a hell of a show.

The only problem was that
U.S. Fish and Wildlife

loved it because
they didn't have to travel

all over the world
to bust these people.

[Bruce] We knew that there
was a huge legal wildlife trade

at the Expo,

and it served as a cover

for wildlife trafficking.

[Ken]
It was the ultimate collection

of reptile smugglers
and dealers

gathered together.

The equivalent would be
an annual gathering

of drug cartels in Juarez.

[elevator dings]

The smuggling wasn't really
happening down on the floor.

Everybody was wheeling
and dealing in the motel rooms.

I set up the room,
drilled holes in the cabinets,

and put a pinhole lens.

[George] [on video]
At the hole now
where the pinhole lens

and camera will be
sh**ting from.

Wire runs down
through the carpeting

to the adjoining room
and on into the video recorder.

Rolling.

Hey, how you doing?

[Ken] Frank Lehmeyer did not
come into the United States,

but Wolfgang Kloe did.

[Wolfgang chuckles]

[Ken] The Germans smuggled in
about 80 Madagascan tree boas.

[laughter]

[George] I was in
the adjoining room recording

and being ready
to protect the agent

if-- if something went bad,
if the whole deal went bad.

I recorded the whole exchange
of reptiles and money,

and the admissions of guilt
from the defendants.

[Bruce] Once we had documented
enough criminal activity,

we were ready
to arrest Wolfgang Kloe.

[George] We knew Wolfgang Kloe

was going
to a restaurant nearby.

[Bruce]
Agents arrested him there.

He asked not to be handcuffed
behind his back.

So, you know, I think,

well, it was just basic,
decent act of kindness.

You know, the agent
who arrested him

handcuffed him in the front.

[handcuffs clicking]

Put him in the backseat of a car

with an-- an agent driving

to take him to jail in Orlando.

[Bruce] Well, coming up
to a toll booth

on the Florida Turnpike...

Wolfgang Kloe
bails out of the car.

I mean, our agent
just left his car

sitting in the middle
of the toll booth

and went after him.

-[Bruce] There was a foot race.
-[siren wailing]

-He ran across
eight lanes of traffic.
-[car horns honking]

In handcuffs,
wearing Birkenstocks.

[Bruce]
Made it over the fence,
far side of the highway,

and headed off
into the neighborhood.

Construction worker
in the neighborhood

saw him running with handcuffs,
and just grabbed him for us.

There was a lot of,
uh, chatter

on the law enforcement radio
when that happened.

[faint indistinct chatter]

[person coughing]

[Ken] This is the deposition
of Wolfgang Kloe.

Swear the testimony you're about
to give in this case
will be the truth,

the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth,

-so help you God?
-Yes, I will.

Elinor Colbourn
on behalf of the United States.

[Elinor Colbourn]
I was a trial attorney

in the Wildlife and Marine
Resources section.

I flew into Orlando
to be there for the arrest,

to be on hand
for whatever developed.

Have you ever
collected any snakes?

Yes, I did.

-From the wild?
-Yes, I did.

[Elinor]
Did there come a time

when you sold
any of those animals?

Uh, yes, we sold those animals.

To whom did you sell them?

Um, we sold these animals

to Tom Crutchfield's
Reptile Enterprises.

[Elinor] We learned
that there was in fact

an ongoing relationship
with Tom Crutchfield.

Placing before you, Mr. Kloe,
what's been marked

as Government Exhibit Number 3.

[Wolfgang] That's the building
where Tom Crutchfield's,

uh, reptile shop is, yeah.

We stayed in that area
for about two or three days,

and we went to his shop,
uh, almost every day.

And so, that aspect of the case

developed very quickly
thereafter.

[Ken] I started typing up
a search warrant

for Tom Crutchfield's business.

If we got Crutchfield
for a second time,

we should get a good sentence.

[Tommy] We had gone down to eat
at Catfish Johnny's,

which is a restaurant.

The Fish and Wildlife Service
agents come in the front door.

This guy's name
was Ernie somebody,

and he pops up, "Federal agent,
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service!"

We had a search warrant
for his business.

We would like him to come along.

I said, "So, I-- So I'm not
gonna be able to eat?

I have to go down there?"
He goes, "Yep."

Told Tom,
"You're not under arrest,

but we are going to search
your-- your business."

Tom Crutchfield followed us
back to his shop.

It was a surreal experience
walking into Tom's office.

You know, we're looking
for paperwork,

and there's a sweater box
with Cuban crocodiles

hatching out of their eggs.

Not something
that you see every day.

[items clanging]

When we ex*cuted the warrant,

the reaction from
Tom Crutchfield was clearly,

"Holy sh*t, this is not just
the local agents.

This is something
much more significant."

I didn't know what in
the actual f*ck was going on.

They searched my entire shop.

[Ernest] We were looking
for incriminating evidence

to cement the case
of the conspiracy

to violate federal law.

We basically had to look
in every file folder,

cabinets that he had in there.

There was a few animals
that were in question.

I had to search
the venomous room by myself.

[snake tails rattling]

That was a tense few hours
opening sweater boxes.

-There was a large cobra...
-[snake hissing]

...that had been repeatedly
trying to bite me

in the rear end as I bent over.

[Tommy] It was funny as sh*t.

He looked like
he was gonna vomit.

I just started laughing,
of course.

They went through the offices,

they went through
the desk drawers,

took boxes and boxes
of stuff with 'em.

Uh, they were there
for a long time.

They shut everything down,
took all the computers.

They took our animals.

[Ernest] We were probably there
five or six hours,

and we had some very good
incriminating documents in there

that could lead to
Tom Crutchfield's conviction.

[Bruce] Some number of weeks
after the search warrant...

an agent for Fish and Wildlife
came out to the facility.

The facility had been
completely cleared out,

and all we could find were
a bunch of neighborhood kids

running around in the trees,

chasing all these
exotic lizards

that were hopping around.

[Tommy] After they searched
my entire shop,

I knew that all this
was coming down.

I was on probation,
and I realized

that this is never
gonna f*cking end.

And I realized that liberty
and justice is not for all.

-[radio static]
-♪ Good morning, Belize ♪

♪ And good morning ♪

♪ I say good morning, Belize,
and good morning ♪

♪ And how are you
this morning? ♪

The good news from Belize is,
there's no news from Belize.

It's in a world of its own.

If you were to write
a motto for Belize,

it might be "no sweat."

I found out that we
can't be extradited from Belize

on this-- a wildlife charge
of any kind,

so we drove down there
in 1996.

We opened up
a car rental business.

I bought a bunch
of rental cars.

It was called
Iguana Car Rental.

I even took people out
myself occasionally

on, uh, sort of eco tours.

It was working out
pretty well, really.

I was not happy.

It was really hard
for my children

to leave the United States

where they had
all their friends.

Vanessa got pulled out
of high school.

We were trying to keep it
together down there,

but, you know,
that's really difficult.

[dog barking]

[Penny] It was very stressful
being a fugitive

because they still
were pursuing us.

[Bruce] We quickly figured out
that Tom had fled to Belize

to avoid the Operation Chameleon
charges.

[Ernest] In my mind,
I actually was thinking,

"This is really great,"

'cause he just added
a serious felony offense

by fleeing the country.

Of course, it presented us
with a problem.

How do we get
our hands on him?

We got in touch
with the Belizean authorities,

and they promptly conducted
their own investigation.

[Penny]
There were people in the house
at the end of the block

that were watching us
with spy glasses.

It was scary.

Found out that the family

was running an ill*gal
reptile business

out of their Belize
accommodations.

Never learned his lesson.

Never turned it around.

That was his downfall,

just his arrogance

and his infatuation
with reptiles.

The cops in Belize
don't have g*ns.

But in my case,
they came with g*ns.

Belizean Dragon Force
shows up at my house,

machine g*ns and stuff.

[Vanessa Crutchfield]
They went in after Dad

like he was a m*rder*r.

We're animal people.
This is weird.

They arrest me and they take me

to the Racoon Street
substation.

I'm in a state of shock now.

It was my worst nightmare.

[♪ dramatic music playing]

Tom got arrested
and put in Belize prison,

and then we couldn't
get him out.

[Tommy] And so, I'm sitting now
in Hattieville Prison

in a cell with a guy
who stabbed his last cellmate

in a fight and k*lled him.

[Ernest]
Hattieville has a reputation

of being maybe one
of the worst jails

in North or Central America.

[Tommy]
They had a brutal prison guard,

and he carried a big stick,

and he raised his stick
at me one time,

and I turned around
and looked at him,

I said,
"Let me tell you something,

you slimy son of a b*tch."

I said, "If you hit me
with that stick,"

I said, "I'm gonna take that g*n
off your waistband.

I'm gonna stick it up
your f*cking a*s sideways."

And I said,
"I'm gonna k*ll you."

And I said, "And the other
guards are gonna k*ll me."

And then I said,
"But I want you to remember,

"my family's on the outside.

"They're gonna k*ll everybody
in your f*cking family,

"and we're gonna start
with the chickens,

and work up
to the grandparents."

I said, "I promise you.
That's not a threat.

It's a f*cking promise.
Hit me with it, dickhead."

He didn't.

[Penny] It was terrible.

People got m*rder*d
there all the time.

It was scary
having to go visit him

and having to take him
water and food.

[Tommy] You were served a--
in the morning,

a four-ounce piece of bread
with bugs and sh*t.

Lunch was a cupful of rice
and beans and a chicken foot.

A foot. Not the drumstick,

but a-- a foot, you know,
with the toes.

At that point,
I realized that happiness

is really a state of mind,
not a state of being.

[Ken] We really wanted
Tom Crutchfield back.

So, the U.S.
Department of Justice

and Elinor Colbourn

put some pressure
on the Belize government

to have Tom Crutchfield
returned to the United States.

-[plane engine rumbling]
-[♪ upbeat music playing]

[Elinor] We were notified of
the flight they placed him on,

and it was a nonstop flight
into Miami,

so we were able
to meet the flight there

and take him into custody.

Once I got back, I was indicted

for buying wildlife

from the Germans
that they smuggled.

[Ken] Wolfgang Kloe
was sentenced to 46 months.

Frank Lehmeyer,
he testified against him

in a court of law in Germany.

I understand he was fined
$160,000 U.S.

[Ernest] Tom Crutchfield
ultimately pled guilty

to seven felony charges.

He was sentenced
to 30 months in jail

and placed on probation
for three years.

My punishment was,
I had six months

of in-home arrest,

and then I had
electronic bracelet

for another six months.

My mother,
my sweet, nice mother,

ended up with
an ankle bracelet on.

[Ernest]
Penny Crutchfield was a victim

of Tom Crutchfield,
in my opinion.

I mean, she was culpable,
don't get me wrong.

I don't know if it was love
or whether it was

just his strong will
to manipulate people.

'Cause he did,
he was a manipulator.

[Eric] What was your crime?

What did you-- what were
you charged for?

I was charged
with smuggling reptiles,

even though
I didn't smuggle 'em.

Well...

[laughing]

Not that was provable.

[Vanessa] All these problems
with Fish and Wildlife,

it did take a toll
on the marriage.

It would take a toll
on any marriage.

My mom stood with my dad
through all the legal troubles

and all that,
and after all that was done,

that's when they ended up
separating and getting divorced.

I totally loved Tom.

I-- I still love Tom, but...

Tom's main love of life
is reptiles.

After a while, I'm like,
"Well, I'm done."

[snake hissing]

[Eric] Wow, beautiful snake.

-[snake hissing]
-Whoa!

[Tommy] That's a black
Pakistan cobra,

so there's no anti-venom
for this.

If this bites you,
you'll die real quick.

[Penny] I feel like
in the reptile world,

it's a certain type of people,

and I don't think
it's a good idea

to put your trust in them.

They want what they want,

and it's their addiction
to snakes and reptiles.

It is.

[snake hissing]

[Ken] I'm Special Agent
Ken McCloud,

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Division of Law Enforcement.

While Tom Crutchfield's
in federal prison,

I'm interviewing
his Vice President, Adamm Smith.

We interviewed the man from
eight o'clock in the morning

till 11 o'clock at night,

and for two days straight.

[Adamm]
Ken McCloud, very personable.

-Right.
-[Adamm] Unassuming,

you know,
made you comfortable.

Blab-blab-blab.
Get yourself in trouble.

[Vanessa] Adamm Smith
told Fish and Wildlife

every f*cking thing

that he could possibly
think of to tell them.

[Adamm] Tom cut himself in.
He had made a good deal
with them.

He'd go to Australia and get
strip-searched every trip.

I'd have paid
$50,000 for that snake.

Alligators, I don't know
if they're real.

[overlapping voices]

[Ken]
After several hours...

[Adamm] He sends 'em
to San Diego Zoo.

[Ken] ...Adamm Smith
mentions Tom Schultz

at the San Diego Zoo.

And... we stopped, and I said,

"What?
What are you talking about?"

And he says,
"Oh, you don't know that?"

Right, so Tom Schultz
and Tom Crutchfield

were good friends.

Tom Schultz was the, uh,
curator of reptiles.

[Ken]
He was curator of reptiles

at the San Diego Zoo.

Incredible guy.

Tom Schultz.

I mean, the biggest zoo
in the country.

-[children laughing]
-♪ You belong in the zoo ♪

♪ The San Diego Zoo ♪

[Bruce]
Starting in the 1970s,

we knew that prominent zoos
around the country

were buying trafficked animals,

and knowingly buying
trafficked animals.

They wanted the animals
for their collection,

so they bought 'em
from smugglers.

[Ken] But for years,

the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service

thought the big zoos
were untouchable.

[Tommy] In the years
I knew Tom Schultz

and did business
with the San Diego Zoo,

they bought hundreds
and hundreds of animals from me.

He bought stuff
that he knew was ill*gal...

including womas,
black-headed pythons,

diamond pythons.

He always wanted
the rarest of the rare.

[Adamm] Basically, it was
a symbiotic relationship.

Tom Schultz
would come and get stuff,

and-- and back and forth,
you know.

[Ken]
One would scratch one's back

and the other would scratch
the other's back.

Tom Schultz
was selling animals

that were property
of the San Diego Zoo,

and deposit that money

into his own personal
bank account.

[gator rumbling]

[Elinor] As we looked
through the records,

there were things like Rolexes
that changed hands.

[Ken] We found a number
of records, bank checks,

deposits, telephone records,

airline tickets,
motel records.

Tom Schultz
was scamming everybody

and making huge sums of money.

We had enough evidence

to convict Tom Schultz

on a number
of federal felonies.

[Elinor] Ultimately,
he entered a plea agreement

and agreed to leave his job
as curator of reptiles.

[Ken] We proved zoos
are not untouchable.

That shook up
a lot of curators.

[Hank] It was a real
slap in the face,
wake-up call.

The zoos then decided
to reinvent themselves.

There was serious pressure.

Zoos overnight
had to greenwash themselves

and become
conservation-oriented.

They created departments
of education.

They created
conservation curators.

[guest] Two adults
and two children.

[Dr. Patrick Burchfield]
And here's the thing,
right now, more people

go to zoos and aquariums
every year in the United States

than all the professional
athletic events combined.

[Tommy] And yet,
I doubt that many people,

when they look
at animals in zoos,

even think about where
they acquired the animals from

in the first place.

And a lot of them are acquired
from people sort of like myself.

[Ernest] Probably the most
telling thing

when we got access
to Tom Schultz's records,

was the connection
he had with Anson Wong

through Tommy Crutchfield.

Some of the rarest animals
at the San Diego Zoo

went through
Anson Wong's hands.

[George]
The web of Anson Wong,
it just went on and on.

All the down-and-dirty
hard work,

16-hour days,
the highs and the lows.

If we're gonna put this kind
of stress on ourselves

in addition to the-- to the time
and effort and money,

let's go after the biggest
and the worst.

Anson Wong was still operating
freely out of Malaysia.

So, we had to figure out
the next move.

What are we gonna do?

And I think part of me
was saying,

I've had it with this.
[laughing]

I'm gonna have to do something.
I'm gonna have to shake this up.

[♪ dramatic music playing]

[person] George!

[George] So, to get Wong
to where we could arrest him...

I'd have to get in
close and personal.

Try to make this guy trust me
and make friends.

-[line ringing]
-[Eric] I'm calling.

[Ken] It was extremely
well thought out.

But we didn't know
what we were getting into.

-[line ringing]
-[George] Make no mistake,

you don't know how bad
of a guy he is.

I had heard rumors
of Anson Wong

being tied in with
the Chinese mafia.

[reporter 1]
Crime syndicates are involved.

[reporter 2]
The most notorious

and flagrant in the world.

[George] He can be
a dangerous guy.

[Tommy]
Well, he's f*cking dangerous.

[line ringing]

[phone clicking]

Anson?

[snake hissing]

[♪ dramatic music playing]