Middle East linked to falcon egg trade

British investigator says smuggler stopped with 14 peregrine eggs in Dubai proves link, but a UAE official has seen no evidence of such a network.

Peregrine chicks hatched from some of the eggs stopped at Dubai airport.

A man jailed for attempting to smuggle rare falcon eggs out of the UK on a flight bound for Dubai proves a link between wildlife thefts in Britain and buyers in the Middle East, an investigator says.

The eggs were destined for the black market in Dubai, where they could fetch £70,000 (Dh400,000), a court was told last week. However, a government official in Abu Dhabi responsible for enforcing bans on illegal wildlife trade said he was unaware of such a market. Jeffrey Lendrum, 48, was caught in May after a cleaner at Birmingham International Airport noticed him acting suspiciously in the Emirates Airlines business class lounge - he had used no water while in the shower - and reported him as a possible terrorist.

Lendrum was found to have 14 peregrine falcon eggs bound in socks and strapped to his body with bandages to keep them warm. In a subsequent search of his home, police discovered equipment for egg hunting, including incubators, a GPS system and walkie-talkies. Guy Shorrock, a senior investigations officer at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said the prosecution was "the first unequivocal link between peregrines and the Middle East".

"There was no doubt that this man is a professional international courier. I don't think there is any doubt he was taking eggs to order to supply the falcon market in the Middle East," he said. "There was always some speculation that some of these birds or the produce from breeding projects were going out to the Middle East." Lendrum was heading from Birmingham to Zimbabwe, with a 14-hour layover in Dubai. Investigators have dismissed the idea the eggs were bound for Africa.

"The chances of him taking those eggs and taking them to Zimbabwe are considered remote," said Mr Shorrock. "It is believed they would be passed over to somebody in Dubai who would incubate them and pass them on to whoever wanted them." With falconry a favourite national pastime, the birds are highly coveted, selling for tens of thousands of dirhams. But peregrine falcons are a protected species, and trade in wild-caught birds is illegal.

Abdulrab al Hemeri, a senior official at the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi responsible for enforcing the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, said he was not aware of a market for peregrine falcon eggs in the UAE. "I can't remember an incident or any attempt to smuggle rare wildlife species from the UK to the UAE," Mr al Hemeri said. "This may be the first attempt. We seize stuff at the border, either brought intentionally or not. They're usually from Africa to the UAE."

Lendrum admitted at Warwick Crown Court to one charge of trying to export the eggs and another of illegally stealing them from a nest on the side of a mountain in Rhondda, south Wales, in what investigators described as the most serious case of its kind in decades. There are only 1,400 breeding pairs of peregrine falcons in the UK and the birds receive the highest level of protection. Falcon eggs are thus coveted.

Lendrum, a former member of the Rhodesian Special Air Service who travelled the world for business on an Irish passport, developed daredevil techniques to snatch eggs, once abseiling off a cliff to reach a nest, and on another occasion lowering himself from a helicopter in Canada. He was first convicted of offences involving taking birds of prey from the wild in Zimbabwe in 1984, then again in Canada in 2002. In the Birmingham case, he has been sentenced to 30 months in jail.

"This sentence is fantastic news," Mr Shorrock said. "It sends a very clear message to the criminals who seek to make money from exploiting our wildlife." @Email:[e-mail] * With additional reporting by Ramona Ruiz