{"id":6760,"date":"2013-08-18T12:49:17","date_gmt":"2013-08-18T18:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/?p=6760"},"modified":"2013-08-18T12:49:42","modified_gmt":"2013-08-18T18:49:42","slug":"operation-wild-web-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/?p=6760","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Operation Wild Web&#8221; News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\">On July 11,  2013, The U.S. Fish &amp; Wildlife Service announced that following a  coordinated undercover law enforcement sting called \u201cOperation Wild  Web,\u201d Federal and state charges were filed against numerous wildlife  traffickers caught illegally selling wildlife and related products  online.\u00a0 The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ifaw.org\/united-states\">International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)<\/a> aided in the operation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">According to  IFAW North American Regional Director Jeff Flocken, \u201cThe Internet is the  largest marketplace on Earth.\u00a0 It&#8217;s 24\/7, anonymous, and largely  unregulated and unmonitored.\u00a0 The Internet has become a dangerous place  for animals.\u201d\u00a0 Flocken said he\u2019s glad \u201cThe U.S. Government is going  after people selling wildlife illegally online.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">IFAW has been  a leader in illegal wildlife trade investigations, and previous  investigations by IFAW served as a benchmark for \u201cOperation Wild Web.\u201d\u00a0  Flocken said \u201cI\u2019m honored that IFAW\u2019s work investigating wildlife crime  online was credited as the inspiration for \u2018Operation Wild Web\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">When asked  about the scope of \u201cOperation Wild Web,\u201d Flocken replied \u201cIt was very  large.\u00a0 The U.S. and three other nations, eight state wildlife agencies,  14 U.S. Fish &amp; Wildlife Service offices plus IFAW and other  nonprofits did the work.\u00a0 IFAW had four employees who spent two weeks  scouring the Internet in targeted regions sending tips back to law  enforcement officers whenever we suspected something appeared to be  illegal wildlife trafficking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The illegal  wildlife trade ranks fourth on the list of most lucrative global illegal  activities behind narcotics, counterfeiting and human trafficking.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Founded in  1969, the International Fund for Animal Welfare saves animals in crisis  around the world.\u00a0 With projects in more than 40 countries, IFAW  provides hands-on assistance to individual animals, works to prevent  cruelty, and advocates for the protection of wildlife and habitats.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">For more information, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ifaw.org\">www.ifaw.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On July 11, 2013, The U.S. Fish &amp; Wildlife Service announced that following a coordinated undercover law enforcement sting called \u201cOperation Wild Web,\u201d Federal and state charges were filed against numerous wildlife traffickers caught illegally selling wildlife and related products online.\u00a0 The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) aided in the operation. According to IFAW [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-articles","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6760"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6762,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6760\/revisions\/6762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}