‘Pablo Escobar of eggs’ faces more jail time

– Jeffrey Lendrum spent three decades living as the socalled “Pablo Escobar of eggs”, smuggling the fragile shells from the nests of falcons and other birds of prey to wealthy international clients.

His racket was smashed in 2018, when customs officers at London’s Heathrow Airport found him in possession of 19 birds of prey eggs worth a total of £100 000 (about R1.8 million).

During a full search, he was found to be wearing a body belt made out of bandages concealing 19 eggs from vultures, falcons and kites, as well as two newly-hatched African fish eagle chicks.

His body belt was designed to “brood” his stash so the chicks would not die before he sold them.

A British court sentenced the 58-year-old Irish-Zimbabwean to more than three years in prison in January last year.

But he now faced another court appearance yesterday, which could see him spend up to three more years in jail in South America, if Britain accepts an extradition request.

He is wanted for skipping bail in 2016, after a Brazilian judge sentenced him to four-and-a-half years for trying to smuggle peregrine falcons out of the country.

Stealing bird eggs runs in the family: the veteran thief received his first conviction aged 22, when he and his father were found guilty of petty theft in Zimbabwe.

He has since served time in Canada, Brazil and Britain.

The main drivers of egg poaching are wealthy clients in the Middle East, where peregrine falcons are in great demand for traditional falconry and can sell for thousands of dollars, according to the wildlife trade specialists Traffic.

Illegal trade in animals is worth nearly $20 billion (about R288 billion) each year, according to Interpol.

But Traffic spokesperson Richard Thomas said there are “fewer than half-a-dozen” reported cases of egg thefts around the world each year.

However, the thefts are “not insignificant” and still constitute “serious crimes”, he said.

The smuggler’s 35-year notoriety is such that “Lendrum is a well-known name to conservation charities working on illegal bird trade issues”, said Thomas.

In 2010, he was stopped at Birmingham International Airport in central England with egg boxes strapped to his chest.

Nicknamed “the Pablo Escobar of eggs” by the British press after the Colombian drug lord, Lendrum has been arrested five times on three different continents.

Lendrum, once a member of the Rhodesian army’s special forces, even used a helicopter during a theft in northern Quebec, hanging from a rope to get close to the nest, according to Joshua Hammer, in The Falcon Thief, the book he wrote about Lendrum’s exploits. – AFP