Rich Moulton Oral History Transcript

Rich tells us how, working as a plant inspector for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), he met two special agents in the Fish and Wildlife Service and was hired by Jack Downs to work at the JFK airport in New York City. After short stints in New York and New Jersey, Rich transfers to a one-man duty station in Hartford, Connecticut. He worked closely with Federal agents from other bureaus. He worked Migratory Bird Act cases, Lacey Act cases, and Endangered Species Act cases. Later in his career, Rich begins undercover work. Rich tells about his biggest cases – Operation Berkshire which involved the poaching of bears for their gall bladders, Operation Wiseguy in which a U.S. citizen worked with members of the South African Defense Force to smuggle rhinoceros horn and parts of other endangered species as well as guns and marked the first international extradition involving crimes against wildlife, and  Operation Snow Cat which involved an Afghan-American known as “Ronnie the Rugman” who smuggled snow leopard rugs and later became an FBI informant on the Taliban as well as a trusted Taliban official. Rich worked at Logan Airport in the aftermath of 9-11. Rich was the recipient of the 1994 Clark Bavin Award for his work on the Operation Wiseguy case. (He was also the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s 1993 Guy Bradley Award recipient, but Rich fails to talk about that in this interview.)  He also talks about being the subject of a book about wildlife agents, written for young children. Finally, after retirement, Rich became an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut in Storrs and conducted background investigations primarily at the Groton Naval submarine base.