From Cafe in the Vox Media Podcast Network, this is Stay Tuned in Brief.

I'm Pete Barara.

Today we're going to discuss an often overlooked but growing kind of crime, wildlife trafficking.

The demand for commodities like Rhino horns and elephant ivory has led to sprawling

trafficking rings that profit from the continued decimation of wildlife species.

I guess this week, Andrea Krasta is the Executive Director of Earthleague International,

an organization that has been called the CIA of wildlife trafficking.

Earthleague is an undercover investigation and intelligence agency that infiltrates and

exposes the criminal networks at the center of the illegal wildlife trade.

Andrea Krasta, welcome to the show.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for having me.

Will we start with your describing for listeners how this Earthleague International came to be

and what its mission is?

Yes.

I was in Kenya in 2010 for my previous job.

I was a security consultant for high-profile individuals with a lot of security problems.

Let's put it this way.

I was consulting the former Prime Minister of Somalia, who lived in the Robbie Bechtana.

In 2010, we were riding the middle of the elephant poaching crisis.

When we were losing even 40,000 elephants every year for the ivory, for the ivory for

the ivory trafficking.

...