Alaska man accused of smuggling, selling illegal animal remains
Federal prosecutors also allege that William Sidmore made thousands of dollars dealing in the ivory of extinct wooly mammoths from tusks stolen from federal land in Alaska. He moved much of the inventory through Seattle and Poulsbo, prosecutors say.
Sidmore was being held at the federal detention center in SeaTac yesterday pending extradition to Alaska. There he faces smuggling charges and charges that he violated the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Lacey Act, which prohibits the importation of protected wildlife.
Sidmore rented storage lockers in Poulsbo to keep boxes of the illegal items, prosecutors said. Sidmore grew up in Alaska but has lived primarily in Indonesia for the past decade or so, prosecutors said.
An indictment unsealed yesterday says undercover agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had been buying illegal animal remains from Sidmore since about June 2003, when they befriended him in Alaska.
Over the past 14 months, the agents bought bear teeth, carved elephant tusks, walrus ivory, a leopard skull and the skull of a great helmeted hornbill, a bird native to rainforests of Southeast Asia. The selling of Alaskan bear parts and parts of Asian sun bears is illegal; Sidmore is accused of selling parts of both types of bears.
The agents said Sidmore frequently showed off a tusk that he claimed came from a narwhal, an Arctic whale. Male narwhals have a tooth that grows into a long, spiral tusk that may reach 9 feet.
During the sting operation, the agents met Sidmore in Poulsbo and Seattle, including at an Asian art gallery on Western Avenue in downtown Seattle, where he allegedly showed off his carvings and sold the agents more teeth and a leopard skull.
Sidmore had been staying with a friend on Capitol Hill for the past several days, but left yesterday, saying he had a flight back to Indonesia, said the friend, Dennis Raymond. Raymond said he didn't know Sidmore had been arrested.
He said he met Sidmore in Indonesia about five years ago and let him stay at his home when he came through Seattle. Raymond said Sidmore was open about his dealings in mammoth tusks, but Raymond was unaware of any illegal items. It is not illegal to sell mammoth tusks unless they are illegally taken from federal land.
Sidmore once had a parcel delivered to himself at Raymond's home, but Raymond said he never looked inside. The federal agents allege that the plastic box, which later turned up in Eagle River, Alaska, contained several pieces of ivory.
Ian Ith: 206-464-2109 or iith@seattletimes.com