Synthetic and Farmed Alternatives to Wildlife Products Won’t Save Endangered Species During Operation SANDOKAN, which investigated wildlife trafficking in the lower Mekong, ELI collected interesting information on the attitudes of wealthy Chinese wildlife buyers regarding wild vs. farmed animals. While there are unfortunately many tiger “farms” in the region, ELI found that elite consumers would […]
ELI-Enabled Turtle Seizure Part of a Larger Global Wildlife Trafficking Trend On December 10, 2025, during ELI’s Operation VALLARTA, intelligence provided to USG authorities by ELI led to the seizure of 930 live endangered turtles at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). This was a record-setting interdiction of animals at LAX, which were removed from […]
Trafficking Diaries™ – What Traffickers Told Us, Recorded Undercover By Andrea Crosta, Founder and Executive Director, Earth League International (ELI) Today I start this series of mini case studies called Trafficking Diaries™, to provide food for thought to government agencies, policymakers, academia, media and the public. Over the years, working with Earth League International, my teams […]
INSIDE THE TRAFFICKING NETWORKS: ELI’S New Monthly Intelligence Brief Series. This month, ELI is excited to launch a new monthly series of concise intelligence briefs that share information, analysis, and findings emerging directly from our field operations and intelligence work. Between our longer public reports, these briefs will provide timely insights into the illegal wildlife trade (IWT), environmental crime, […]
OPERATION SANDOKAN: Unmasking the Lower Mekong’s Biggest Wildlife Traffickers ELI Releases Major Investigation into Cambodia’s Wildlife Trafficking Networks and Their Links to Organized Crime, Scam Compounds, and Corruption New report and accompanying undercover video reveal the inner workings of the Lower Mekong’s most prolific wildlife trafficking networks — exposed through sustained undercover intelligence operations inside […]
Operation VALLARTA ELI Intelligence Leads to What Is Believed to Be One of the Largest Single Seizures of Live Trafficked Wildlife at a U.S. Airport: 930 Endangered Turtles Intercepted at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Including One of the World’s Rarest Species, dealing a $7M blow to traffickers. Earth League International (ELI) announced yesterday that […]
Earth League International Collaborates with Emmy-Winning Independent Filmmaker Johnny Harris to Expose “Flying Money” — The Shadow Financial System Fueling Global Crime As part of ELI’s commitment to not only investigating but also raising global awareness of the most dangerous and poorly understood dimensions of transnational organized crime, we collaborated with filmmaker and journalist Johnny […]
ELI Releases Corruption Report Drawing on Ten Years of Undercover Intelligence New report reveals how corruption — observed firsthand from inside criminal networks — is the invisible engine driving environmental destruction worldwide, and why no law, policy, or institution can survive when corruption is allowed to thrive Earth League International (ELI) today released Money Talks: Ten Years of […]
A 3-Year Intelligence Operation on the Criminal Drivers Behind Amazon Deforestation. Cattle Ranching, Cocaine and Gold 2025 was for ELI the culmination of more than 3 years of intelligence operations in the Colombian Amazon. Since 2022, through Operation ENCANTO, ELI has undertaken an extensive field investigation in Colombia to gather intelligence on the main players and […]
At Earth League International (ELI), most of our work happens far from the public eye — undercover, inside criminal networks, and within ongoing intelligence operations that cannot be publicly discussed. For that reason, moments when our Founder and Executive Director, Andrea Crosta, can openly share how this journey began, and how it evolved into infiltrating […]
