Smugglers, birds and big money

By EUGENE BINGHAM

As a hotel cleaner in the steaming Thai capital Bangkok, there wasn't much Somporn Kessra had not seen. But when she opened the door to room 1413 of the Chaophya Park Hotel in March last year, the sight struck her as unusual. A man was bent over by the bed with a thermometer tending to a box full of white balls.

She was so puzzled she mentioned it to policemen who came visiting the hotel months later asking about the guests from room 1413.

Several days after Kessra's encounter, a woman who had been staying in room 1412 passed through Auckland Airport from a Bangkok flight. Marie Jackson did not know she was being tracked. Customs officers shepherded her away to the search area. Jackson was trussed up with five strands of stockings below her breasts. She was carrying 26 eggs that had been taken from the incubator box the cleaner saw.

Her arrest triggered an investigation into the strange world of international bird smuggling, an inquiry that involved clandestine meetings with scared informants and undercover visits to Thai aviaries. Agents from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Customs, and the Wildlife Enforcement Group delved into business meetings held in Bangkok sex clubs between New Zealanders and an Australian bird breeder. This week, the inquiry culminated in a court case featuring claims of threats against witnesses and accusations of blackmail against MAF.

All over some brightly coloured birds.

From the beginning, authorities were not satisfied with just collaring Jackson. They were determined to find out about the smuggling operation behind her and their suspicions quickly turned to two men who were in Thailand with Jackson. Roy Nichols, the man who was spotted tending to the incubator in the Chaophya Park Hotel, was staying next to Jackson. Scott Piggott was across the hallway.

Nichols' proximity to an egg courier alerted wildlife agencies because he was no stranger to them. In 1997, he made legal history at the centre of the first exotic bird trial under the Biosecurity Act. A High Court jury found him guilty of acquiring and possessing 20 assorted bird eggs. He was sentenced to 18 months' jail. He also had a record for burglary and receiving.

After prison, Nichols returned to his Far North farm where he had gained a reputation as a bird-breeder. His speciality was Australian parrots and, in particular, galah mutations - unique colourings bred into the birds. By his own admission, Nichols has made a mint out of feathers. A breeding pair of his galah mutations fetch US$12,500 ($24,990), red-tailed black cockatoos go for $25,000 a breeding pair - all legitimate sales on the lucrative export market.

It bought him a comfortable lifestyle. Over the years, Nichols imported a BMW car from Germany and bought a 65ha block in Mangonui where he lived with his wife of 18 years, Rhonda, and their three children. He owned a sawmill and had forestry interests. Tens of thousands of dollars in foreign currency were kept in his bedroom safe.

Piggott, a builder who had drug and dishonesty convictions, met Nichols about five years ago after he became interested in parrots. Nichols began teaching him about breeding and the two became close. Piggott joined Nichols on his frequent overseas trips. There were several jaunts to Thailand, as well as to London, Dubai, and Pakistan. Nichols paid most of the bills.

The trips were tied to Nichols' parrot-breeding business which he ran from his study. Email and phone records showed Nichols dealt with breeders and collectors around the world.

He was shrewd, using generosity and discounted prices to open more lucrative doors. Several years ago, he began sending unsolicited gifts to an eccentric Thai millionaire to win his confidence. Last year, the Thai asked Nichols if he could buy six birds. Nichols offered him a heavily discounted price on the understanding he would put Nichols in touch with another enthusiast known to have expensive tastes.

The international trade is fuelled by men like the Thai millionaire - wealthy, slightly kooky, bird enthusiasts. Many, of course, use legitimate means to get their hands on the rare species for their collections, obtaining approvals to import their pets under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) - the international agreement governing the trade in threatened flora and fauna.

But there is also a thriving black market. Dr David Watson, an Australian ornithologist from Charles Sturt University with a long-standing interest in bird trafficking, says the ease with which eggs can be body-packed, high profits, and comparatively low penalties create tempting opportunities. "If you've got the dough, you can get whatever you want," said Watson. "Southeast Asia and Belgium in particular are the clearing houses for birds that are funnelled in from all over the world."

For some collectors the motivation is pure appreciation of a beautiful creature. For others it is a status symbol. Then there are those who want the rarest of the rare at any cost.

Watson compares it to buying stolen art which you can't display. "It comes down to the whole mad collecting instinct that is out of control in some people." A 1997 report by TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring programme of the World Wide Fund for Nature, found that New Zealand played an active part in the legal and illegal trade in birds. With Australia banning the export of native birds since 1960, it was believed that native Australian CITES-listed birds were being smuggled to New Zealand from where they could be legally exported.

The legally obtained stock of caged birds in New Zealand has been frozen since the mid-1990s, to prevent the spread of diseases. It still rankles with some of the country's estimated 10,000 bird collectors and breeders.

The import restrictions are one source of friction with MAF. Lately, investigations into alleged disease outbreaks within caged bird populations has been the cause of more tension.

Next month, an Auckland breeder will go to court to prevent MAF from destroying his budgies which the ministry believes have a disease that could spread to natives. The breeder, Jim Bradshaw, accuses MAF of being heavy-handed. "They storm into the house saying this and that - they can't keep doing this to people."

Bradshaw happens to have stood in the dock with Nichols during his 1997 bird-smuggling trial. He was accused of being Nichols' lieutenant but was found not guilty.

Bradshaw believes he and Nichols have been unfairly hounded. "They can paint him as a bad guy if they like, but there's probably only three experts in this country and he's one of them."

Bradshaw said he met Nichols and his wife when he was a 15-year-old. When Bradshaw's father died, the Nichols took care of him and paid for lawyers dealing with the estate.

"They were wonderful, wonderful people. If Roy is a friend, he will look after you forever."

In the bird world, contacts and connections mean everything. For Nichols, one contact throughout his 20 years as a bird-breeder has been the Ackroyd family of Australia. Three generations have been in the trade. His most recent dealings have been with Mal, grandson of the original Ackroyd birdman.

Nichols says he and Ackroyd did business when it was possible to import parrots to New Zealand from Australia. More recently, Nichols said, he helped Ackroyd smuggle eggs from Thailand to Australia. He alleged that in January and March last year, they met in Bangkok's Soi Cowboy district. As Nichols told the story, he bought eggs on Ackroyd's behalf, leaving Ackroyd to arrange the couriers to body-pack the eggs to Australia.

But Ackroyd told the Weekend Herald he was stunned at Nichols' claims, saying he saw Nichols in Thailand once, but only for about 10 minutes. "It's a bit of a kick in the arse, actually," Ackroyd said of Nichols' allegations. "I've been nothing but friendly to him."

He did travel regularly to Thailand (six times last year alone) but said his business was in jewellery and pottery.

Last year, New Zealand authorities took several trips to Thailand investigating New Zealand's connections to the illegal bird trade. MAF investigator Craig Hughes made two trips, the first just days after Jackson was caught. He visited breeders in Bangkok, posing as an Australian egg buyer named Brian to discover where the eggs carried by Jackson originated. "Brian" made contact with two breeders, one in a housing estate in a teeming suburb, another at a more luxurious property further out of the city called the MP Bird Farm.

At the first property he was offered eggs but declined, saying they were not the variety he was looking for. At the MP Bird Farm, he noticed threatened Brazilian parrots called crimson-bellied conures.

Back in New Zealand, Hughes grilled Jackson about who else was involved. Hughes' meetings with Jackson were not always routine. At one point, she asked to meet him at the Mangere Lawn Cemetery. She was nervous about talking to him and wanted to go to the cemetery because that was where her father was buried and she felt comfortable there.

Hughes eventually convinced Jackson to talk, although MAF continued to press charges against her. Last year, she pleaded guilty to charges under the Biosecurity Act but escaped a jail sentence because she was co-operating with authorities. With her evidence, MAF pieced together their case against Nichols and Piggott.

Soon after dawn on September 19 last year, officials from MAF and other agencies simultaneously raided Nichols' Far North property and Piggott's Henderson home.

The search of the Nichols' farm was dramatic. A Kaitaia policeman came along carrying a Glock pistol on his belt. Carloads of officials poured over the house and surrounding grounds. In one of the steel mesh aviaries, Hughes noticed a crimson-bellied conure amongst the dozens of brightly coloured parrots. It was the first he had seen since the MP Bird Farm.

Nichols and Piggott were both charged under the Biosecurity Act with arranging the Jackson egg-run. DNA analysis had revealed that the eggs included a dusky lory, moustached dervyan parakeets, ring-necked parakeets, sulphur-crested cockatiels, and eclectus parrots, some of which were listed as CITES-protected endangered species. Nichols was also charged over the conure, another endangered bird.

During the two-week trial in the Auckland District Court, Nichols, 45, constantly chatted to his lawyer, Chris Comeskey, pointing out flaws in the Crown case. Piggott, 35, was quiet. Crown prosecutor Fletcher Pilditch referred to them as the chief and his lieutenant and called witnesses from around the world, including Kessra the hotel cleaner.

Marie Jackson failed to turn up during the first week of the trial, but rang Hughes at midnight Saturday to say she had changed her mind and wanted to give evidence. The 42-year-old mother of three from Massey told the court that she had been reluctant to appear because of messages that her life would be hell if she turned up.

Jackson, who knew Piggot and Nichols through mutual friends, said that Piggott had approached her early last year inviting her and her husband Wayne to Thailand for a holiday. "He said there would be a small earn in it," she said.

Jackson, her husband, Piggott and Nichols all took the same flight to Bangkok. Nichols also took his daughter. They all stayed at the four-star Chaophya Park Hotel in rooms paid for by Nichols.

Jackson gave evidence that she had kept the egg-smuggling plan secret from her husband. On the last day of the trip, she sent him off for a massage at a parlour next to the hotel. While he was away, Jackson said, she went up to Nichols' room where the two men tied the eggs on her. That evening, she and Wayne flew back to Auckland with Piggott.

Nichols' lawyer, Comeskey, attacked Jackson, calling her a liar and a thief. Nichols admitted buying the eggs but claimed that Jackson was acting for his old friend, Ackroyd, and was supposed to hop off the flight in Sydney.

Prosecutor Fletcher Pilditch laughed off the suggestion of Ackroyd's involvement. Comeskey called Nichols a fine businessman who had been caught in a MAF witch-hunt. The jury found Nichols and Piggott guilty.

For the birds there was no happy ending. The eggs Jackson carried were either broken in transit or failed to survive. The crimson-bellied conure died in MAF custody after it was seized from Nichols' property. It was a sad end for an endangered bird which took on mythical status during the court case. To some witnesses it seemed the reason for the fuss was beyond them.

The gun-carrying Kaitaia policeman was asked about what he had seen at the Nichols' aviaries. In particular, had he seen the conure?

"You mean the red bird?" he asked. "The little red thing that looks like a budgie?"