Overview

• John Waldrop was fined $900,000 and sentenced to three years of probation, one of the largest penalties ever under the Endangered Species Act.
• Toney Jones, Waldrop's accomplice, received six months of probation for facilitating the illegal smuggling operation.
• The investigation uncovered Waldrop's collection of 1,401 taxidermy bird mounts and 2,594 eggs, including species protected by multiple conservation laws.
• Waldrop and Jones used online platforms like eBay and Etsy to illegally import specimens from over a dozen countries between 2016 and 2020.
• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed this as the largest bird mount seizure in its 37-year history, highlighting the global impact of wildlife trafficking.