Collecting, apparently, is a lifelong obsession.
—MIYEKO MURASE
NEWCOMER HAD BECOME HAUNTED by butterflies and, no matter how hard he tried, couldn’t give up the ghost. Kojima had worked his way under Newcomer’s skin to reside in his very bones. Newcomer was determined to get Yoshi back somehow. There was no way he’d let his first undercover case become a dud.
He was drawn once more to InsectNet, hoping to learn whatever he could about Kojima’s butterfly sales and activity. He soon found what he was searching for.
It was February 2004, and Kojima was once again offering to sell CITES Appendix II butterflies on InsectNet’s “classified” section. With Kojima in Japan, and out of touch, there wasn’t a damn thing Newcomer could do except continue to monitor the site.
Kojima posted forty-six different species of butterflies for sale, collected in Asia, the Caribbean, and South America, over a five-week period. He was raping the globe to provide the best and rarest butterflies for his customers. Just the thought of him getting away with it continued to eat at Newcomer.
It was serendipity when his confidential informant called that April from out of the blue. He had recently spoken with Kojima by phone. It was true that Kojima no longer brought butterflies into the States, but the CI had a new gem to offer. Kojima had bragged that friends in California were now supplying him with Papilio indra butterflies.
The informant told Newcomer that he was still willing to assist in Fish and Wildlife’s investigation. He would gladly make undercover purchases from Kojima.
Newcomer was newly invigorated about the case. Perhaps this was the best way to catch Kojima; then again, perhaps not. Kojima was not only clever, but he had an ego the size of the Amazon. That might very well prove the key to his undoing.
Newcomer was used to scrambling back up after having been knocked down so much as a kid. Get beaten up enough, and you learn to dodge, punt, and bluff. The trick was remembering to go with the flow. In a way, Kojima was a lot like those bullies that he’d once had to deal with. Newcomer felt ready to jump back into the game. All he had to do was pinpoint Kojima’s Achilles’ heel.
Newcomer now had the brainstorm that he’d been waiting for all along. He’d pretend to find another butterfly supplier and run his own eBay auctions. That would prove to Kojima that he could sell Appendix II butterflies without being detected by Fish and Wildlife.
The idea was brilliant, and Newcomer was sure he knew just how Kojima would react. His plan would not only work like a charm; it would drive Kojima insane. He would be so jealous that he’d come running back and they’d be in business together again. Besides, at this point, Newcomer had nothing to lose.
He ran the scheme by Palladini and got it approved. Then he contacted eBay. Newcomer explained the situation, told them he wanted to hold decoy auctions and needed to create a fake history. Would eBay help out? They flatly refused.
“I thought, ‘Fuck them,’ and did it anyway,” Newcomer said with a laugh.
The first thing he needed were protected butterflies to sell. That was the easy part. He obtained Appendix II butterflies that had been previously seized by Fish and Wildlife. The next challenge was to ensure that none of them were really sold to the public. That’s where his fellow agents from around the country came in. Newcomer contacted some Fish and Wildlife buddies and had them sign up for decoy eBay accounts. It was then time to put his plan into action.
Rigged auctions were set up that ran each week based on an elaborate system. Newcomer contacted participating agents and had them place incremental bids on whatever butterfly he had posted. That would drive the price up an exorbitant amount, creating what appeared to be a real bidding war. One agent would enter an absurdly high bid at the end of the week and be named the winner.
He offered tantalizing tropical specimens, from Ornithoptera paradisea, often called the “most desirable birdwing the world over,” to the delicate Ornithoptera meridionalis, to the dusky black Troides aeacus with its sun-kissed hind wings. All of them were protected. Every agent that “bought” a butterfly would post a glowing review.
Wow! Ted’s butterflies are fantastic. This guy’s the greatest!
The goal was to attract Kojima’s attention. Each night Newcomer would fall asleep not counting sheep but imagining what Kojima might say.
I see you’re doing eBay auctions, Ted. Where are you getting your material? Who’s your supplier?
While dozing off, Newcomer would pretend to smile and shake his head.
Yoshi, you know I can’t tell you that. It’s all hush hush. But he’s not that good. He’s very unpredictable, and charges too much.
Don’t worry. I can supply you, Kojima would always whisper.
Newcomer would have sweet dreams all night long.
The eBay auctions were such a success that Ted Nelson appeared to be making a killing. Newcomer used the disc of butterfly photos that Kojima had given him just to add fuel to the fire.
“The beauty of it was that members of the public were also bidding. Of course, none of them ever won,” Newcomer said, with one exception.
An agent screwed up and didn’t enter a high-enough bid one week. A member of the public won an Ornithoptera victoriae from the Solomon Islands. The butterfly is as beautiful and exotic as it sounds. Large and colorful, its wings are a pulsating lime green boldly trimmed in jet black. Three golden spots dot each outer edge. Newcomer had to think fast and cover his ass.
Fortunately, the winner lived in Southern California, and Newcomer offered to deliver the butterfly in person. Then he quickly set to work. He painstakingly slit the butterfly’s wings with a knife. To his mind, it was better to ruin the specimen than sell it and help fuel demand. He presented the butterfly to the man along with an apology.
“I totally screwed up. I was folding the wings and one tore. I’m afraid you’re not going to be able to use it,” he explained ruefully.
Newcomer offered to return the man’s money and asked only that he not post negative feedback. The customer agreed, and Newcomer was back in business.
His auctions gathered steam, but they had yet to attract Kojima.
For chrissake, what do I have to do to get this guy’s attention?
Then he hit upon it. If the mountain wouldn’t come to him, then he’d simply go to the mountain. Kojima still posted bugs for sale on InsectNet, so Newcomer proceeded to write up an announcement.
TED NELSON NOW SELLING BUTTERFLIES ON EBAY
I’m pleased to announce my association with a reputable butterfly collector. Introductory auctions will start at ridiculously low bids. I know you’ll like the product.
He posted it prominently on InsectNet, along with his link. He figured that ought to do the trick.
He figured right.
Boom! Kojima went ballistic.
Ted Nelson immediately began to receive e-mails from Kojima. However, they weren’t congratulatory notes. “Stop using my photos immediately!” he demanded. “Otherwise appropriate action will be taken.”
Newcomer got a good chuckle out of that one. Gotcha, he thought. He further fanned the flames by responding that Kojima had been right all along. The eBay business was huge, and he was doing very well. Perhaps Kojima would like to meet with him the next time he came to L.A. and discuss buying and selling butterflies.
That ought to give him a good tweak. Newcomer made the concession not to use Kojima’s pictures anymore. Even so, Ted Nelson’s eBay auctions continued in full swing, and he let Kojima know that he planned to run many more. Wouldn’t Yoshi reconsider their business relationship?
What else could Kojima possibly want? Not only had Newcomer proven that he could successfully sell butterflies, but he was inviting Kojima to participate.
“I want to work with you,” Newcomer wrote.
But he had once again misread the man. His ruse backfired as Kojima became even more hostile. He now viewed Nelson as a competitor attempting to take his territory. And he began to retaliate.
Every time Nelson auctioned a butterfly, Kojima would offer the same exact species on InsectNet.com, only at a lower price. Kojima undercut him on everything from Ornithoptera goliath to Morpho cypris to Bhutanitis mansfieldi. It was a war of the wings. Included in his postings were public scoldings of Nelson.
Shame on you, Ted Nelson! You’re selling CITES material without permits!
I sell cheaper than Ted. Don’t buy from Ted Nelson! Ted Nelson is bad!
The turn of events would have been hysterical if it wasn’t so maddening.
The guy is freaking nuts. He’s like a pit bull on steroids, Newcomer complained to himself. Kojima was accusing Nelson of doing exactly what he always did, selling CITES Appendix II species without permits. It became a game of chess in which every move Newcomer made was countered by one from Kojima. Newcomer knew he was walking a fine line. How far could he push Kojima and still stay within the boundaries of the law?
“You’re always trying to manipulate someone’s behavior through your own in such a way that you can collect evidence. At the same time, you have to be very careful not to entrap that person,” Newcomer explained.
The battle heated up as Kojima kept a watchful eye on Ted Nelson’s eBay auctions while Newcomer monitored Kojima’s sales on InsectNet. The men circled each other like two angry bulls snorting and puffing. Newcomer’s plan had brought Kojima out of the woodwork, but it wasn’t getting him anywhere. There had to be another way to lure the man.
It was then that Newcomer realized what had been in front of him all along. Kojima was so angry that he’d begun to get careless. He was now offering Appendix II butterflies to every Tom, Dick, and Harry on InsectNet. He was breaking his own Golden Rule: Only deal with people you know, and you’ll never get caught.
Newcomer now knew his next move. He’d let Kojima step into his own trap.
Ed posted a Bhutanitis lidderdali, a species from Bhutan and southwest China, on his eBay site. The butterfly is a showstopper, black bedecked with narrow ribbons of cream color. However, its real beauty lies in its hind wings, which are fringed with a series of pointed tails. The colors are the last gasps of a sunset, three white orbs, reminiscent of crescent moons, separated by bands of red and gold.
Kojima not only followed suit, he upped the ante by offering three of the same Appendix II butterfly on InsectNet as “This Week’s Special.”
It was too good to be true. Kojima has actually helped set himself up, Newcomer gloated to himself. Kojima was practically doing his work for him.
Newcomer promptly contacted San Diego agent John Brooks with a request. Would Brooks mind buying all three butterflies on InsectNet from Kojima?
Brooks couldn’t have been more thrilled. It seemed they were finally going to catch the bastard.
Brooks sent an e-mail to Kojima through InsectNet, and the deal was done. There was just the matter of payment. Kojima preferred to receive the $137 due via PayPal. Newcomer nixed the idea.
“Let’s find out how Kojima cashes his checks. Tell him that a money order works best, and ask where you can send it,” Newcomer instructed.
Brooks followed through.
Kojima responded that he still had family in California and provided an address in Beverly Hills.
“He is my father-in-law. Don’t worry. He likes money,” Kojima jokingly added in his e-mail.
That worked for Newcomer. What could be better than catching two birds with one stone? The father-in-law apparently had plenty of time on his hands and was helping Kojima with his business in this way.
His father-in-law cashed the money order, and the butterflies arrived a few days later by international Express Mail from Japan. Inside were three Bhutanitis lidderdali packed in glassine envelopes, their wings neatly folded as if in prayer.
Also included was a U.S. Customs declaration form on which Kojima had marked the butterflies as a gift with zero value. With it was a fraudulent CITES permit that not only had expired three years ago but was issued from the wrong country. Kojima was unbelievable, yet he’d gotten away with this sort of thing for years.
Newcomer now had Kojima on a number of charges. Kojima was guilty of smuggling, a false Customs declaration, false labeling, failure to declare, and violating the Endangered Species Act. Throw in the fact that his father-in-law might be considered a coconspirator, since he’d accepted the money order and cashed it. There was just one problem.
Kojima was probably the world’s greatest butterfly smuggler. No way was Newcomer about to go to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and indict him on a $137 butterfly-smuggling charge. It would be a waste of both the U.S. Attorney and Fish and Wildlife’s valuable time for what amounted to nothing more than a minimal offense. Newcomer wanted Kojima thrown into jail and put out of business, not merely slapped on the wrist.
He continued his selling on eBay if for no other reason than to piss off Kojima. By the end of the summer, he had run fifty-two auctions. Best of all, eBay never knew an agent had manipulated its system after it had nixed the opportunity to cooperate.
John Brooks attempted to contact Kojima once again in the hope of making a few more buys, but Kojima no longer responded. His attention was apparently focused elsewhere. For a while Newcomer wondered if Kojima had simply disappeared, until he received one last angry e-mail.
Kojima accused Newcomer of still using his photos and threatened that “big trouble” would soon be coming. Ted Nelson wouldn’t be in business much longer. He signed the e-mail “Not your friend, Yoshi.”
It proved to be a timely warning.
The California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) received an anonymous call on its “Cal Tip” hot line at the end of June 2004. A caller reported that Ted Nelson was engaged in the sale of illegal butterflies in Los Angeles.
The wardens contacted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife office in Torrance to have them investigate. As luck would have it, Ed Newcomer answered the line.
“They told me, ‘Hey, we got this funky recording from a Japanese guy. He’s reporting that someone named Ted is illegally dealing in butterflies,” Newcomer remembered.
It was as if the floor had suddenly fallen out from under him.
He asked them to make a copy of the tape and send it to him right away. He anxiously waited for the package to arrive and then listened to the recording in stunned silence. There could be no doubt about it. He immediately recognized the voice. Kojima had turned him in to California Fish and Game.
Newcomer’s first response was to laugh out loud in surprise. Son of a gun. Who would have dreamt that he’d make such a gutsy move? Little did Kojima know that he’d just turned in a federal agent.
Newcomer’s second reaction was giddiness. This is totally awesome. My cover is 100 percent tight. The bad guy believed it enough to try and turn him in.
Then a knot the size of the Rock of Gibraltar formed in Newcomer’s stomach as reality began to set in. Oh shit. The case is blown, he realized.
Newcomer ran into Palladini’s office and relayed what had just taken place.
“I screwed it up again,” he confessed. “I’m never going to get Yoshi.”
Palladini agreed this time. “You’re right. It’s over. Kojima turned you in. He’s never going to trust you after this. He’ll figure you’ve either become an informant or made a deal with Fish and Game if you stay in the butterfly trade. I doubt you’ll ever hear from him again.”
Kojima had adroitly marked his territory and just gotten rid of his competition. Newcomer had been bumped from the game. Turning Ted Nelson in had been a slick move. Newcomer had been thoroughly beaten. He’d driven the butterfly case headfirst into the ground for the second time.
Yoshi Kojima was the cleverest and most paranoid man that Newcomer had ever known.