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- [00:00]
Zach Goldbaum
Wondry plus subscribers can listen to new episodes of Lawless Planet early and ad free right now. Join Wondry in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts. South Florida swamps in July are about the swampiest they'll ever get. But Curtis Blackledge has to ignore the thousand percent humidity and slog through the thick brush because this is the time of year for collecting alligator eggs. Curtis and his collecting partner Tommy are looking for an alligator nest and looking out for the mother. They have GPS coordinates for where the nest should be. They're searching for a huge pile of vegetation and muck. It's 2016, Curtis first season collecting eggs and he's learning a lot on the job. The pair are out with a large group gathering eggs that'll be raised on Curtis brand new alligator farm. Eventually, they'll sell the gators for their hides and meat. This isn't Tommy's first rodeo. He's a veteran egg collector. And when they find the nest, it looks familiar. Here's Curtis.
- [01:18]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
We're walking up to it and when Tommy says, oh, I recognize this. Damn, this gator here is a bitch, man. She'll catch you.
- [01:26]
Zach Goldbaum
Curtis and Tommy get in position. Curtis is on watch for an angry mama while Tommy opens up the huge nest. Inside, there are a couple dozen goose sized eggs. Tommy starts taking each egg out and drawing a line with a marker. Then he puts the eggs in a gray plastic box lined with vegetation. The mark is to keep the eggs right side up. Turning them over could kill the baby alligator inside. Since Curtis started working with his crew, they seem to always be in a rush. This time is no different.
- [02:02]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
We're sitting there and I'm looking around. He goes, come on, give me a hand here. So he's actually pulling the eggs out. I'm marking it.
- [02:12]
Zach Goldbaum
Then all of a sudden, Curtis feels something tug at his shirt.
- [02:16]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
I turn around. It was her. And Tommy turns around and sees the same thing and he hollers, run. And he takes off. I take off. He literally pushes my head down, jumps over me and runs.
- [02:31]
Zach Goldbaum
When there's a bitchy gator around, it's every man for himself. Once they get some space between them and the mom, Curtis pulls out his phone and starts recording. The gator's mouth is w open. She's hissing and standing protectively over her open nest. Tommy is throwing sticks and roots, anything he can find at her.
- [02:53]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
This was a 12 footer. We're trying everything in our powers to get her out of there. That nest is open. We don't want to ruin the Eggs. So we're throwing sticks and everything at it.
- [03:03]
Zach Goldbaum
Once a nest is open, eggs that aren't harvested likely won't survive. So they have to get the mama gator away from her exposed brood. To do that, Tommy swings a long rod. A whack on her sensitive nose will let her know who's boss. But he swings and misses, and the rod gets caught in some branches. Now they're defenseless, and the gator lunges at them.
- [03:29]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
You talk about something fast. She charges at us, and Tommy picks up the stick immediately and back up. Get on, motherfucker.
- [03:44]
Zach Goldbaum
After Tommy gives her a huge whack, she turns and slinks into the water. She's still mad, but she keeps her distance. Curtis and Tommy finish collecting the eggs from the nest. These eggs are valuable, and they don't want to leave any behind. Curtis goes home that night, shaken.
- [04:04]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
I was thinking, holy shit, what would have happened? That thing grabbed me, put me in the damn canal, rolled me, killed me. Is Tommy gonna pick up my body? I would hope take me to the morgue or the hospital and say, man, his name's Curtis Blackledge, which, there's no such person. So it really made me think.
- [04:27]
Zach Goldbaum
The reason there's no such person is because Curtis Blackledge is actually Jeff Babauda, a Florida Fish and Wildlife officer deep undercover. And he's putting his life on the line, all in the name of protect Florida's most notorious beasts. From wondry. I'm zach goldaum, and this is lawless planet. Each week we tell a new story about the true crimes fueling the climate crisis and the people fighting to save the planet or destroy it.
- [05:06]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
So I'm filming the whole thing, and next thing you know, I hear he shoots, he misses. And now I'm thinking, what the.
- [05:36]
Zach Goldbaum
The Florida Everglades once spread hundreds of miles from just south of Orlando to to the end of the peninsula. It's known as a river of grass, but it's much more than that. It's a massive ecosystem full of unique and varied biomes, like cypress groves, pinelands, sloughs, and mangrove swamps. It's home to more than 350 animal species. There is no place like it in the world. But in the early 1900s, white settlers battled the landscape and the elements in the Everglades, and in the name of development, they started to literally drain the swamp, which is always kind of a red flag. Finally, in 1947, Everglades National park was established to protect what was left of this fragile landscape. By that time, many species living in the everglades were endangered, from sea turtles to sparrows. And the fearsome American alligator Wasn't spared either. Their population was decimated by habitat loss and a surge of hunting for their prized hides, which were made into accessories like purses and shoes. By the 1960s, alligators in Florida were nearly extinct. But conservation efforts like the endangered species act Helped the gator population rebound. Today, there are more than a million alligators in the sunshine state, and they're no longer on the endangered species list. It is a true conservation success story, One that has been maintained by a delicate balance of a bunch of factors, including regulated hunting, Farm raised gators, and egg harvesting. Since alligators rarely breed in captivity, it's now legal to harvest their eggs in the wild. But to avoid overharvesting, It's a highly regulated business. And back in the 2010s, state wildlife officials noticed some funny business going on with alligator eggs. To investigate, they launched an undercover sting operation, which became known as operation alligator thief. And at the center of it was one Florida fish and wildlife agent who got so deeply embedded with poachers that his investigation started to feel like a betrayal. In 2017, Rebecca Renner was working as an english teacher in central Florida. That was when she first heard rumors about alligator poachers being busted by the Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission, or fwc.
- [08:10]
Rebecca Renner
One student told this story about an FWC officer being so far undercover that nobody around him knew and that he was basically a shapeshifter.
- [08:22]
Zach Goldbaum
Rebecca is a Florida native and was working as a freelance writer for publications like national geographic. She was intrigued by this mysterious undercover operation and wanted to know more. She would go on to write a book about it called gator country. As she first started digging into the story, she learned that a few years before this undercover investigation, Gator eggs across the gulf coast had taken a hit.
- [08:46]
Rebecca Renner
Before the case took place, A hurricane hit the gulf, and it flooded most of the major alligator habitats in Louisiana. People think, well, that's not a problem. Alligators can get wet. Well, their nests are not as sturdy. And so that flooding essentially wiped out an entire micro generation of alligators from the state of Louisiana.
- [09:14]
Zach Goldbaum
Florida is known for gators, but there are actually even more in Louisiana. And after hurricanes Ike and Gustave in 2008, as many as 70% of their nests were wiped out. The resulting shortage of eggs Caused prices in Florida to spike five times over.
- [09:32]
Rebecca Renner
That can be a lot of money, Especially when your investment into going and collecting these eggs is a tank of gas. And the risk of being bitten Wild.
- [09:43]
Zach Goldbaum
Alligator egg collection is standard practice, but it's closely regulated by Florida Fish and Wildlife, or fwc. They have quotas for how many alligator nests can be open and how many eggs can be collected in designated areas. Collectors pay the state for permits and pay collection fees to landowners.
- [10:01]
Rebecca Renner
It sounds so legalistic, but the problem is when tiny mistakes are made in numbers, they become large problems. The danger is that if we look in all the nests and we take all the eggs from an area, all of those alligators are gone. You don't have any of that generation there, and that can have a huge effect on the ecosystem. And then what if we do that year after year? That can cause a domino effect.
- [10:31]
Zach Goldbaum
Around 2013, FWC started getting reports that thousands of expected wild alligator hatchlings seem to have disappeared. That meant that someone was poaching alligator eggs. Most likely, a number of legit egg collectors in Florida were skirting FWC's collection rules.
- [10:50]
Rebecca Renner
It's people who are already licensed to collect the eggs, collecting more than they are paying the state to collect.
- [11:00]
Zach Goldbaum
To avoid another dip in alligator population levels, higher ups in FWC knew they needed someone on the inside, someone to become a true Florida man and get to the bottom of a possible poaching ring.
- [11:12]
Rebecca Renner
The alligator farming industry is insular and it's a good old boys club. The people who have been doing it have been doing it for a long time. They don't want to give away their secrets. They don't want new blood in there.
- [11:27]
Zach Goldbaum
Rebecca's curiosity about the case brought her to Jeff Babauda, the veteran wildlife officer who became known as Curtis Blackledge. When Jeff Babouta was growing up in the small island country of Guam in the western Pacific, he figured out pretty early what he wanted to do with his life.
- [11:45]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
There was an ad in the comic book that talked about being a conservation officer, and I was, what, 10 or 11 years old and reading this ad. It talked about being outdoors and protecting wildlife. And I said, you know what? This is what I want to do when I grow up.
- [12:06]
Zach Goldbaum
And that's what Jeff did for 35 years. He moved to the United States in his teens and settled in Florida in his 20s. When he moved to South Florida, he fell in love with the Everglades and its ecosystem. He started out as a fishery technician with FWC and eventually worked his way up to game warden. He spent years chasing down deer poachers and explaining fishing rules to people. And he has some wild stories of shooting a rhino on the loose and getting bitten by a nuisance alligator in 2015, Jeff was nearing retirement and looking forward to slow days tending his yard and spending time with his family until he got a call from a higher up at fwc, Lieutenant George Wilson.
- [12:50]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
And right off the bat, he asked me, would you be interested in going undercover? And I kind of, like, laughed at first, and I said, not just no, but hell no. I said, I'm getting ready to retire. He kept continuing to call. So after about the third or fourth, at the time they called, I thought I'd go entertain them, the other command staff. And that's when they said, how would you like to go out with the bang? Well, I took that as a challenge.
- [13:23]
Zach Goldbaum
Jeff debates the idea of it with his wife. She's hesitant. He's already spent years in risky situations, but he's told by his bosses it'll only be for one year. And ultimately, Jeff can't give up the chance for adventure, so he agrees. He still doesn't know exactly what he'll be doing undercover, but Lieutenant Wilson gives him some advice.
- [13:44]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
They looked at me and said, by the way, you might want to grow your hair out.
- [13:52]
Zach Goldbaum
According to Rebecca, Lt. Wilson is saying that because Jeff Babauda doesn't look like a guy you'd find in an alligator farm.
- [14:00]
Rebecca Renner
Jeff is a very clean cut person. He's the kind of guy who polishes his shoes and irons his uniform like he's immaculate. So when he started to transform, he was designing a character. Jeff would describe it as a little scruffy or a little disreputable.
- [14:20]
Zach Goldbaum
As he begins his transformation, Jeff gets a letter in the mail saying he has a new identity. His name is Curtis Blackledge. He's given a few details, but the rest of the character is for him to dream up.
- [14:34]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
I had to break away from being a law enforcement officer and being a Delta Bravo, a dirtbag, and build that Persona.
- [14:44]
Zach Goldbaum
Only his wife and son know he's going undercover. Other people start to wonder if he's doing okay. His own mother says she doesn't recognize who he's becoming. He's starting to look like a real Florida dirtbag. But Jeff keeps his new job a secret. Then one day in the fall of 2015, he gets a key and an address in rural Arcadia. It's a couple hours away from his home. It's deep in the country and swamp on the outskirts of the Everglades. Jeff drives south. He's familiar with the area. He's patrolled it before. It's like the Wild west out there, untamable and lawless. Once he gets to the address. He unlocks a gate and drives down a barely visible path.
- [15:30]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
I drive in and it's a dump. There's a dilapidated mobile home, which I'm praying to God that's not where I'm living. It's about a nine acre field with three ponds. On the property was an actual fish farm that the agency had rented. This thing's all covered in moss and whatever it was. Ugly.
- [15:57]
Zach Goldbaum
As he stares at the rundown mobile home, Jeff thinks wistfully about his manicured lawn. He gets on the phone with Lt. Wilson, who tells him, don't worry, he's living next door in a slightly less dilapidated camper, which has no working ac. But Jeff's concerns about his accommodations will have to wait. Wilson tells him they've been getting reports of some sketchy alligator dealings in the area.
- [16:20]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
I was basically told I'm an alligator farmer, and so I don't know much about being a farmer, let alone raising alligators. So I did like everybody else does. I googled how to be an alligator farmer, and I got on YouTube and I started researching this.
- [16:41]
Zach Goldbaum
Wilson has some names he wants Jeff to look into. He needs Jeff to infiltrate the tight knit group of alligator farmers and figure out who may be poaching eggs and just how big the operation is. Over the next few months, Jeff gets acquainted with his new home. He says goodbye to his family, though he's able to visit them for short stints every few weeks. Then he gets to work turning this overgrown jungle into something presentable. He comes up with a name for his little operation. Sunshine Alligator Farms.
- [17:13]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
I was hanging my business cards everywhere. Hey, look, you know, I'm here, let's do business. Call me. I went with that old saying that says, if you build it, they will come.
- [17:24]
Zach Goldbaum
Now that he has a name and a more presentable farm, he needs to get permits from the very agency he works for. While undercover as Curtis Blackledge, his operation is only known to higher ups.
- [17:37]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
The individual that was the inspector for our area happened to be an officer that I know. We've patrolled together. I call him and I disguise my voice. I just got my voice got deeper like, hey, how you doing? My name's Curtis Blackledge. I own a farm.
- [17:59]
Zach Goldbaum
Jeff makes sure not to be on the farm. On the day of the inspection, he tells the inspector that he had a family emergency and the key is under the mat. Eventually, Sunshine Alligator Farms passes. Once he's hung up the sign at the gate to his property, he's open for business. He calls some local trappers. Trying to buy some full sized alligators. These are nuisance gators found in people's yards and pools. The state hires trappers to capture or kill them just for being in people's way. And some are sold to farmers like Jefferson. His first gator cost him about $75. By spring 2016, Sunshine Alligator Farms looks more and more legit. And Jeff is starting to fit in more, too. One of his first relationships is with a gator hunter named Wayne Nichols. Here's how Rebecca describes him.
- [18:52]
Rebecca Renner
Wayne is a really interesting guy. He has a thick pizzazz and he loves to run his mouth. He told some great stories, but the problem with running your mouth is sometimes you incriminate yourself while you're entertaining your listener.
- [19:09]
Zach Goldbaum
Jeff doesn't know what Wayne is up to. He just knows that his handlers at FWC want him to look into it. So Jeff reaches out to Wayne to see if they can do business. Their interactions are guarded at first, but once Wayne gets a few drinks in him, he loosens up. Wayne invites Jeff to help him on a big game hunt with a rich Swedish tourist. The guy wants to kill an alligator and it needs to be a 10 footer.
- [19:33]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
People will fly from all over the world to kill at least a 10 footer in the state of Florida. They want that as a feather in their hat, I guess, to kill something. And they'll pay damn good money for it.
- [19:46]
Zach Goldbaum
Wayne has one in his pond that he thinks is about 8ft. Maybe that'll do. Jeff wonders where that one came from, but he keeps his questions to himself. He just hopes Wayne acquired the gator legally. Wayne concocts a plan to plant the gator by hooking its mouth and connecting the line to a stake in the swamp. Then when they happen upon it later, the tourists can think they had a lucky find. The day of the hunt, Wayne hams it up and they spend a good time in the swamp, scanning the murky waters for anything. Once they find the planted gator, he squirms and fights. But the tourist takes out his.44 Magnum and shoots it. They load the carcass into Wayne's truck and head back to the tourist's car. Jeff has to do some quick thinking about how to trick the Swede.
- [20:35]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
By now it's dark, so I told Wayne as soon as he got out of the truck, I whispered, I'm going to go to the gator's eyes and I'm going to explain to this guy about how it's got two eyelids and this is his nostril. This Is his ears. And I'll have the end of the tape, and you pull all the way back to the tail and holler out, whatever. I had the guy in the front, and I'm telling him, you know, this is the eyes. Da, da, da. Wayne stretches the tape out and hollers, 10, 2. The guy's all excited. We're giving each other high fives and all. The guy's happy. Wayne's happy because he got five grand.
- [21:16]
Zach Goldbaum
So aside from lying to a Swedish tourist, did Wayne do anything wrong? Well, Jeff still isn't sure if Wayne had the necessary permits to hunt the gator or even to have a gator in the first place. But at the moment, he's not really concerned with any of that. He's after bigger violations. So for now, he just keeps cultivating his budding friendship with Wayne. But he hasn't had much success infiltrating the rest of the good old boys club.
- [21:43]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
This is a really protected industry because it's a propriety. Everybody had their own trade secrets on how to do this the right way without blowing a lot of money. So nobody would really let me into their door. I became pretty much just rude. I told myself, you know what? You need to swallow your pride. You're playing a role. You are Curtis Blackledge.
- [22:08]
Zach Goldbaum
Curtis is pushier than Jeff. He shows up at people's farms unannounced. He asks to go to lunch and keeps asking until he gets a yes. One day, he goes to an FWC meeting for other alligator farms in the state. He sees one guy his handlers had actually told him to look into.
- [22:27]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
After the meeting, I went up to this individual, and, boy, did he piss me off. He shunned me. He just looked at me like I was trash. Wouldn't even shake my hand. And I guess I gave him that angry look.
- [22:43]
Zach Goldbaum
The guy lives in Arcadia, too. His name is Robert Albritton. Jeff is mad about the interaction, but then gets a call from Robert soon after.
- [22:52]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
Maybe that evil eye I gave this guy worked. He calls me and goes, hey, man, sorry I treated you so badly at the meeting. I'd like to meet with you. He came to my farm and said, here's what I would like to propose with you. I want to use your facility. I've got all the permits to go collect these eggs, but I have no farm.
- [23:18]
Zach Goldbaum
Robert's in a dispute with a previous business partner and needs somewhere to store the eggs and eventual hatchlings. It's an odd deal, but Jeff will take anything he can get. At this point, Robert Seems nice enough. He's also meticulous about his work. He keeps track of everything on a clipboard, which he keeps secured in a slim aluminum lockbox. Jeff agrees to let Robert use Sunshine Alligator farms. Jeff gets $5,000 for the deal, half now and half at the end of the season. About a month later, they're out on their first egg collection. Jeff, Robert and a caravan of other guys Robert pulled together get to their camp spot late. It's too dark to find any eggs, so they settle in for a sweaty, mosquito filled night. In the morning, a still sleepy Jeff is paired up with a guy named Tommy and sets out looking for nests. Alligator nests are huge piles of vegetation and mud. They can be a foot or two tall and up to six feet wide and can hold anywhere from 20 to 40 eggs. They're so big that you can spot them from the air. And Robert has done exactly that. He's already scouted the place by helicopter and given everyone maps. There are some strict rules collectors have to abide by in Florida, like how many nests they can open. But once a nest is open, they can take all the eggs. The whole hunt seems pretty above board to Jeff. Robert has his clipboard with all the necessary paperwork for their collection, like permits and egg totals. And there's even a retired wildlife biologist who's following them around, keeping an eye on things. Jeff and his collecting partner, Tommy go out surveying the area for more nests. When they come upon one, Tommy opens it without grabbing any eggs. He tells Jeff that Robert told him to do it this way, to check to make sure there are eggs inside, and then officially open the nest when the biologist is around. That way they don't waste time opening nests that don't have any eggs. Jeff is concerned. This seems minor, and it just makes sense from a collector's point of view, but it's definitely violating wildlife laws. The rest of the hunt, he wonders, is this some rogue act by his fellow egg collector Tommy? Or is Robert really instructing people to break the rules? And if they're violating this one law, what else could they be up? Back at Sunshine Alligator Farms in the summer of 2016, Jeff Babauda, aka Curtis Blackledge, is taking care of alligator eggs. These are the ones he's collected with Robert Albritton and his crew. He keeps them warm and protected until they hatch in a month or two. One day, Jeff's handler, Lt. George Wilson, calls to check in on the investigation. Jeff tells him about his uneasy feelings about Robert. Sometimes he'll show up in the middle of the Night with eggs. And Jeff has no idea where they came from. He's noticing. Robert's crew seems to bend the rules, but they keep it on the down low, at least from Jeff, here's writer Rebecca Renner.
- [26:35]
Rebecca Renner
When they were out collecting eggs, maybe things weren't adding up. Maybe they were getting a little creative with the numbers. He'd catch wind of it and they were trying to hide it from him, not because they suspected him of anything, but because they didn't want another factor in the equation because that was an additional risk.
- [26:57]
Zach Goldbaum
Jeff mentions to Lt. Wilson the one violation he has seen, that when collecting eggs, Robert's crew often opens all the nests. Wilson is shocked and tells Jeff that if that's true, they're definitely poaching. But Jeff isn't sure it's that simple. For one thing, these guys aren't acting like they're breaking the law, at least not deliberately.
- [27:20]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
After a while, you get to learn to read people, their body language, how they speak to you, making eye contact. And I generally find that most people are just really not educated. Educated about the law. So I spent a lot of my time during my career educating the general public. And by that I mean I wrote a lot of warnings.
- [27:48]
Zach Goldbaum
As Jeff is getting to know the people he's investigating, like Wayne Nichols and Robert Albritton, he sees that they have a lot of respect for the natural world. They just seem to be loose with the rules that the state has laid out, which can sometimes be confusing and cumbersome. Is Robert acting out of malice or just ignorance? But on this assignment, Jeff knows he's not there to issue warnings. So regardless of his personal feelings toward the guys he's developing relationships with, it's now time for him to gather some hard evidence. While Jeff is watching Robert and his operation, he's getting closer with Wayne Nichols. Since their night with the Swedish tourist, Jeff is hoping that's the worst Wayne is up to to. Wayne is operating on his own and isn't connected to Robert, but he does seem to play fast and loose with the rules when it comes to permits. And Wayne is still a little wary of Jeff and how little he seems to know about gators. Like one time when it looked like Jeff didn't know how to skin an alligator, which, to be fair, he didn't.
- [28:48]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
I've never in my life skinned a damn alligator. And Wayne tried to call me out on it, and I pretty much thought, fuck you, man. This is the way my buddy down in the Everglades showed me. Just leave me the alone and he did. I had no clue what the hell I was doing. I was flaying it like a damn fish.
- [29:06]
Zach Goldbaum
The two like to hang out and shoot the shit. With Wayne guzzling beers and Jeff careful not to lower his inhibitions too much, he's constantly aware he's undercover. He set up tiny cameras and microphones around sunshine, alligator farms, all in the name of collecting evidence. In mid August, Wayne stops by the farm. Jeff is busy doing work for Robert, but Wayne wants to hang.
- [29:30]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
He hung around long enough that I was getting hungry, wanted to go throw in some boba burgers on the grill. And Wayne looks across my field and sees three of these. I call them curlew, these white ibis. And he said something to me about, you ever eat one? And I said, no. I said, I thought they were illegal to kill. You know, acting dumb.
- [29:55]
Zach Goldbaum
Jeff knows that ibis, these white birds with long, curved, orange, red beaks, are protected, as in definitely illegal to kill.
- [30:05]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
She said, nah, only to get caught. And I said, okay, whatever. I go into the camper, and I'm getting things ready, and I look out my window, and he's literally on his GI Joe crawl with this.22 on his arms, and he's crawling across my field. And I'm thinking, what the hell is he doing? So I'm filming the whole thing, and next thing you know, I hear he shoots one, the other two fly off. He misses. And now I'm thinking, what the. What am I going to do here?
- [30:41]
Zach Goldbaum
Now Wayne runs out to the field and gets the bird. He skins it and hands the meat to Jeff and says to put it on the grill. Jeff does as he's told, knowing that the bird he's cooking up could cost Wayne a fine of several thousand dollars. But as always, he plays along.
- [31:00]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
I put some seasoning on that bad boy, and along with our boba burgers, we slice that thing and let me tell you what, have some fine eating.
- [31:10]
Zach Goldbaum
After lunch, Wayne mentions he thinks that there's a traitor in their midst. He says he's been getting calls from fwc, and it looks like someone tipped them off about Robert's operation. Then he adds that they don't seem to think Curtis Blackledge is involved. Jeff is relieved Wayne doesn't suspect him. And he's reminded of just how undercover he is. By the end of the summer, the eggs that Jeff has been caring for are starting to hatch. He sends pictures to his wife.
- [31:44]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
I went out there in the barn. I heard this, and I look in there and like, oh, I hatch babies. I took A picture of it and sent it to her. And I said, I'm a grandpa.
- [31:57]
Zach Goldbaum
Jeff calls the area where he's keeping the hatchlings Sunshine Daycare. He keeps them in plastic kiddie pools, and they peep at him whenever he walks by. They're cute and energetic, nipping at each other and Jeff. These are from the eggs that Robert has been storing at Jeff's place. And now that they're hatched, Robert is ready to sell them to a big alligator farm in Louisiana. As if caring for hundreds of baby snapping alligators isn't enough, Jeff's investigation is coming down to the wire. He has some misdemeanor charges for Robert, but there's a statute of limitations on those, and he's running out of time. He wants to swing big with felony charges, but he's still lacking conclusive proof of poaching. Jeff cycles through his notes and memories of egg collections and remembers one time when they took 151 eggs over their permitted amount of 560. At this particular collection, they were on private land. Collectors pay landowners per egg, but Robert only reported they had 559, one short of their permit. So he's swindling money for both estate and the landowners. As Jeff thinks about how to nab Robert, he realizes it comes down to his paperwork, which Robert stores in that locked aluminum clipboard. That's where he keeps track of everything, maybe even the inconsistencies.
- [33:21]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
He kept this metal binder underneath his arm at all times. He never set that binder down.
- [33:32]
Zach Goldbaum
On one of the trips to Louisiana, Jeff rides along with Robert and his wife Robin. They make frequent stops on the 700 plus mile road trip. Now is Jeff's chance to take a look at that clip. While Robert and Robin are inside one shop, Jeff grabs the clipboard from the front seat. Thankfully, it's unlocked.
- [33:54]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
So I pulled up the phone that was given to me. I opened that clipboard, and I just started taking pictures of every sheet of paper in there. Put it all back in. Here comes Robert.
- [34:07]
Zach Goldbaum
Robert doesn't suspect a thing. They make the long trip back, and Jeff is dead tired after hours of driving.
- [34:15]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
I was whipped. I fired off those pictures, off my phone to my lieutenant. I woke up and I got emails and texts. And he's saying, do you realize what you got here? He says, you've got the magic numbers.
- [34:31]
Zach Goldbaum
This is the final piece of evidence the agency needs to bring some serious charges against the poachers. Rebecca says Jeff and the agency had a name for the discovery.
- [34:41]
Rebecca Renner
He and his guys at the agency started calling it the golden egg sheet because it was all the golden numbers. It was everything they needed to show that they were laundering eggs.
- [34:57]
Zach Goldbaum
Now that they have what they need, it's time to close up shop. Before anyone gets suspicious, Jeff quietly leaves the gator business. His new friends ask a few questions, but overall aren't too prying. After more than two years of being Curtis Blackledge, he finally heads home and waits to see if he got enough secret footage and took enough notes. And he wonders, when the charges do come down, how mad will Wayne and Robert be when they learn the truth about Jeff Babauda?
- [35:39]
Nick Cox
Good afternoon. My name is Nick Cox, and I'm the statewide prosecutor for the state of Florida with the office of the Attorney General, Pam Bondi. You may have noticed as you looked at these boards, some surprising charges.
- [35:50]
Zach Goldbaum
On May 24, 2017, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission holds a press conference. It's to announce the arrests of nine suspects who have been charged with 44 felonies. Some of the charges are related to wildlife laws and alligator egg harvesting and escalate to falsifying official records and even racketeering. This is the conclusion of Jeff Babauda's undercover investigation known as Operation Alligator Thief. The Florida prosecutor says the state is sending a message to any poachers out there.
- [36:24]
Nick Cox
I think part of the message here is we're done with it.
- [36:27]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
We're over it.
- [36:28]
Nick Cox
Poaching eggs, poaching alligators. We've had enough of it, and if you do it, we're going to come at you, and we're going to come at you hard. With charges like racketeering that are punishable by up to 30 years in the Florida State Prison.
- [36:39]
Zach Goldbaum
This is the biggest sting operation in the state's history to take down alleged alligator poachers. Wayne Nichols is charged with illegally capturing and killing alligators, plus one charge for shooting that ibis. Robert Albritton is hit with racketeering charges, along with a slew of other ones related to alligator egg harvesting. The state estimates that he and his crew collected around 10,000 eggs illegally, which were worth about half a million dollars. Tommy and the others that collected with Robert are charged, too.
- [37:11]
Nick Cox
I hope it's very clear to anybody out there who is poaching alligators or who is poaching eggs. It's not going to be worth it. You need to knock it off.
- [37:20]
Zach Goldbaum
Jeff was part of the coordination of the arrests. Earlier that morning, he saw over 60 officers briefed on the sting and sent out across the state. Robert Wayne and the Others don't see Jeff until he's called to the witness stand. In their trials, they hardly recognize the now clean cut Jeff, no longer a dirtbag. They don't say anything, but Wayne's wife calls Jeff an asshole. In the end, most everyone fought their charges and got probation. Wayne's legal fight was messy and he appealed. He was on probation for four years and couldn't work in the alligator industry until 2023. Robert ended up serving two years in prison for fraud and racketeering, along with wildlife law violations. He was released in 2021 and told Rebecca that he wanted to put all of this behind him. To Rebecca Renner, the people caught in the dragnet of Operation Alligator Thief may have broken the law, but shouldn't be painted simply as the bad guys.
- [38:24]
Rebecca Renner
These are such multifaceted characters because people like Wayne, he really gave a shit about Florida. He really gives a shit about alligators. Some people may not look like there are are comrades in environmentalism, but they actually are. I've run into a very wide smattering of people who seem like they'd be one thing, but they are ready to go toe to toe with whoever's gonna fight them in order to save the Everglades in Florida.
- [38:56]
Zach Goldbaum
Not only that, but there are plenty of threats that are perfectly legal that are causing much more harm in South Florida. Take real estate development. The Everglades have shrunk by half since people started diverting water to build in South Florida. To protect the wide variety of species in the Everglades, we have to contend not just with poachers, but with how development is changing the landscape.
- [39:18]
Rebecca Renner
I think that the first step in saving our world is to see it, because it's one thing to talk broadly about nature and to say that it needs our help, and it's another thing to go out and experience that it is broken and we have heard it, but it's also thriving. There's so much left to save, and it's not a lost cause for Jeff.
- [39:45]
Zach Goldbaum
He has mixed feelings about taking down the guys he got to know as Curtis Blackledge. But ultimately, he honored his duty to uphold the laws that protect Florida's natural environment. He retired from FWC in 2019, and now he's focused on enjoying the outdoors and spending time with his wife, who really missed him for the two and a half years he was undercover. Jeff looks back on the whole thing fondly. 10,000 eggs were illegally taken from the wild throughout the operation. But hopefully that keeps more eggs from being poached in the future.
- [40:17]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
Damn worse.
- [40:20]
Zach Goldbaum
One day last fall, Jeff returned to one of the spots he used to work as a game warden, similar to the area where he ran Sunshine Alligator Farm. As Curtis Blackledge, the place has changed a lot over the years. There are more houses and businesses, and the landscape has been altered by hurricanes, development and a changing climate.
- [40:40]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
I did it for a cause, and this right here is looking at it. You know, we're sitting out here at this beautiful state park looking at all this wildlife, but I did it for that. I mean, I'm seeing several birds out there that are protected. You know, you've got the wood stork, you've got the spoonbills, you've got the ibises, and believe it or not, those vultures are protected. You know, you see, we're seeing alligators out here. But this, to me, is what it was all about.
- [41:29]
Zach Goldbaum
Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes of Lawless Planet early and ad free right now by joining Wondry plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey@wondry.com survey. On the next episode of Lawless Planet. When a car bomb nearly kills an environmental activist, the FBI tries to frame her for the bombing.
- [42:02]
Jeff Babauda / Curtis Blackledge
I was driving my car and I quickly hit the brake and at the time when I I hit the brake.
- [42:10]
Zach Goldbaum
There was a very huge explosion and I felt it rip through me. For today's episode, we relied heavily on Rebecca Renner's book, Gator, Deception, Danger and Alligators in the Everglades. Lawless Planet is produced and hosted by me, Zach Goldbaum. This episode was written by our associate producer, Lexi Pirie. Our senior producer and senior story editor is Derek John. Senior producer for Wondry is Andy Herman. Our senior managing producer is Lata Pandya. Our managing producer is Jake Kleinberg. Sound design by Kyle Randall. Music by Kenny Kuziak. Our music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for Frison Sync Fact checking by Brian Punyatt. Our legal counsel is Deb Droze. Executive producers are Marshall Louie and Jenny Lauer. Beckman for wondering. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.
- [43:00]
Rebecca Renner
Ra.