Gorilla With A Badge: Ape / Agent Helps In Arrest Of A Smuggling Suspect

MIAMI - The zoo official peered into the crate and admired his prize. It looked like a gorilla. It grunted like a gorilla.

But rather than getting a prized animal for his zoo back home, the state of Mexico's director of parks and zoos was promptly arrested Monday on charges of violating the U.S. Endangered Species Act. That was surprise No. 1.

Surprise No. 2: The gorilla got out of the crate.

Mexican zoo chief Victor Bernal freaked out. He screamed. He ran. He tried to jump off the plane.

Surprise No. 3: The gorilla was a U.S. Fish and Wildlife agent.

"We kept telling him, `We're police! We're police!' But even after the agent took the hood off, he couldn't believe a gorilla wasn't coming after him," said Monty Halcomb, special agent in charge of the Fish and Wildlife Service's Southeastern region, who posed as the plane's pilot.

Bernal appeared in federal court yesterday, along with two government aides and two importers also arrested on charges that they tried to smuggle endangered animals. If convicted, they could each face up to 10 years in prison.

Federal agents say the Mexicans paid $92,500 to bring the gorilla to the Toluca Zoo in Toluca, Mexico. Their gorilla had died.

So importer Eduardo Berges called Michael Block, one of the world's busiest primate dealers, based in Miami. Berges thought Block would deliver. Instead Block turned him in.

Block had been charged with violating endangered-species laws

himself, alleged to have acted as the middleman in a smuggling deal that left three orangutans dead. Facing 12 years in a federal pen, he cooperated with agents.

On Jan. 12, Bernal, the director of zoos for the Central Mexican state of Mexico, flew to Miami. He met with Block and the supposed seller, U.S. Fish and Wildlife senior agent Jorge Enrique Picon. At Parrot Jungle and Metrozoo, they looked at the goods: a 6-year-old gorilla and a baby orangutan.

Bernal liked what he saw, agents said. He wanted a pilot. He wanted a plane. And he wanted fake permits for the primates.

When the Mexicans arrived at the airport Monday night, a DC-3 plane from the U.S. Customs Service was waiting. Inside was a gorilla in a cage.

The agent perfected his part right down to the smell: also on loan from Metrozoo, a few shovels of authentic gorilla manure.