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Earth League International - ELI, Los Angeles, CA (2026)

04/30/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined us from around the world for our Earth Day Intelligence Briefing.

Drawing on insights from our latest report, Money Talks: Ten Years of Firsthand Corruption Reporting from ELI Investigations, the session explored how corruption operates not as a side issue, but as a foundational pillar sustaining organized environmental crime across global supply chains.

Your thoughtful questions and engagement reflected a growing global commitment to accountability and addressing environmental crime at its roots.

For those who missed it, or want to revisit the discussion, the recording is now available.

The session underscored a clear conclusion: without directly addressing corruption, efforts to combat environmental crime will remain ineffective.

The session also highlighted actionable recommendations for disrupting criminal networks and strengthening responses across sectors.

Thank you for being part of this growing community of public leaders, private sector actors, civil society, and engaged individuals working toward accountability.

We look forward to continuing this conversation through upcoming ELI webinars focused on environmental crime convergence, specific investigations, new reports, evolving criminal strategies, and opportunities for collective action.

🎥 Watch the recording here: https://www.canva.com/design/DAHH5gFf59A/sORBaN-HrM1Bf7xpK2o4xg/watch?utm_content=DAHH5gFf59A&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=hbf2749fce4

04/23/2026

Earth League International went undercover to expose one of the most powerful — and least understood — money laundering systems fueling global organized crime.

Now, in collaboration with Emmy-winning journalist and filmmaker Johnny Harris Harris, this story is reaching millions.

Our latest video, Flying Money: China’s Dirty Money Problem, Explained, has already surpassed 2.2 million views — making it one of the most impactful awareness efforts in ELI’s history.

“Flying Money” is a highly sophisticated laundering system that enables not only the drug trade, but also wildlife trafficking, human smuggling, and environmental crime on a global scale. This investigation reveals one of the most innovative methods used by Mexican cartels to move illicit cash back into the United States — featuring exclusive undercover footage never released before.

Captured during Operation FAKE GOLD, the video includes interactions with a cartel member and a Chinese wildlife trafficker linked to the totoaba trade and the near-extinction of the vaquita porpoise — the world’s most endangered marine mammal. While recorded earlier, this footage is being released now after supporting ongoing investigations by U.S. authorities.

At ELI, we operate at the intersection of intelligence, organized crime, and conservation — uncovering hidden systems like “flying money” and delivering actionable intelligence to authorities while raising public awareness to drive systemic change.

We extend our sincere thanks to Johnny Harris and his team for helping bring clarity and global attention to this complex issue.

Flying Money is the financial backbone of transnational organized crime. Understanding it is the first step toward dismantling it.

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAFw5i39m9I&t=854s

04/20/2026

🌍 Earth Day Intelligence Briefing: Corruption & Environmental Crime

THIS WEDNESDAY, April 22nd at 2 PM EST / 11 AM PT / 8 PM CET, Earth League International (ELI) will host an exclusive intelligence briefing examining the central role of corruption in environmental crime.

This session will highlight key insights from ELI’s recently released report, Money Talks: Ten Years of Firsthand Corruption Reporting from ELI Investigations, which exposes how corruption functions as the central engine of environmental crime—seen from within criminal networks themselves.

During this Earth Day briefing, Nicole Byrd, ELI’s Strategic Analysis and Publications Manager, will present the report’s main findings. ELI’s field teams around the world have collected dozens of unique, firsthand examples of bribery and corruption from within criminal networks, providing concrete insight into how these systems rely on complicit enablers.

One thing is clear: corruption is not an adjacent issue in the fight against organized crime—it is a central pillar. ELI has analyzed this intelligence to develop detailed, targeted recommendations for specific stakeholders, demonstrating not only that we all have a role to play, but also clarifying the “why” and “how” of combating criminal networks across illicit economies.

This briefing is designed for public sector leaders, private sector stakeholders, and the general public seeking to better understand corruption, strengthen accountability, close critical gaps, and address the infrastructure enabling organized environmental crime.

📣 We invite you to join us for this important conversation.

👉 Register now: https://forms.gle/3rzDMy44KLehQPRM6

04/16/2026

🌍 Earth Day Intelligence Briefing: Corruption & Environmental Crime

On Wednesday, April 22nd at 2 PM EST / 11 AM PT / 8 PM CET, Earth League International (ELI) will host an exclusive intelligence briefing examining the central role of corruption in environmental crime.

This session will highlight key insights from ELI’s recently released report, Money Talks: Ten Years of Firsthand Corruption Reporting from ELI Investigations, which exposes how corruption functions as the central engine of environmental crime—seen from within criminal networks themselves.

During this Earth Day briefing, Nicole Byrd, ELI’s Strategic Analysis and Publications Manager, will present the report’s main findings. ELI’s field teams around the world have collected dozens of unique, firsthand examples of bribery and corruption from within criminal networks, providing concrete insight into how these systems rely on complicit enablers.

One thing is clear: corruption is not an adjacent issue in the fight against organized crime—it is a central pillar. ELI has analyzed this intelligence to develop detailed, targeted recommendations for specific stakeholders, demonstrating not only that we all have a role to play, but also clarifying the “why” and “how” of combating criminal networks across illicit economies.

This briefing is designed for public sector leaders, private sector stakeholders, and the general public seeking to better understand corruption, strengthen accountability, close critical gaps, and address the infrastructure enabling organized environmental crime.

📣 We invite you to join us for this important conversation.

👉 Register now at the link in our bio!

04/13/2026

🌍 Earth Day Intelligence Briefing: Corruption & Environmental Crime

On Wednesday, April 22nd at 2 PM EST / 11 AM PT / 8 PM CET, Earth League International (ELI) will host an exclusive intelligence briefing examining the central role of corruption in environmental crime.

This session will highlight key insights from ELI’s recently released report, Money Talks: Ten Years of Firsthand Corruption Reporting from ELI Investigations, which exposes how corruption functions as the central engine of environmental crime—seen from within criminal networks themselves.

During this Earth Day briefing, Nicole Byrd, ELI’s Strategic Analysis and Publications Manager, will present the report’s main findings. ELI’s field teams around the world have collected dozens of unique, firsthand examples of bribery and corruption from within criminal networks, providing concrete insight into how these systems rely on complicit enablers.

One thing is clear: corruption is not an adjacent issue in the fight against organized crime—it is a central pillar. ELI has analyzed this intelligence to develop detailed, targeted recommendations for specific stakeholders, demonstrating not only that we all have a role to play, but also clarifying the “why” and “how” of combating criminal networks across illicit economies.

This briefing is designed for public sector leaders, private sector stakeholders, and the general public seeking to better understand corruption, strengthen accountability, close critical gaps, and address the infrastructure enabling organized environmental crime.

📣 We invite you to join us for this important conversation.

👉 Register now: https://forms.gle/3rzDMy44KLehQPRM6

04/07/2026

What do criminals themselves reveal about corruption?

In Money Talks: Ten Years of Firsthand Corruption Reporting from ELI Investigations, we expose how corruption isn’t just a side effect of environmental crime—it is the system that enables it.

Last week, we shared how a Surinamese network smuggled jaguar products disguised as gold and wild game.

Today, we turn to Africa-linked trafficking networks and a critical vulnerability: inspection falsification.

In one case, a corrupt quarantine officer at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport attempted to manipulate the inspection process to conceal a 12.5 kg rhino horn shipment. This wasn’t just about bribery—it was about altering the system itself to let illegal wildlife pass undetected.

This is how trafficking networks operate:
-They identify weak points.
-They exploit insiders.
-They turn enforcement systems into facilitators.

When inspections can be falsified and permits fabricated, enforcement becomes procedural—not effective.

Corruption is not happening around the system. It is happening within it.

👉Read the full report and help expose the systems enabling environmental crime:
https://earthleagueinternational.org/money-talks-corruption-report

👉 Share this post to raise awareness and support stronger accountability across global supply chains.

03/30/2026

What do criminals themselves reveal about corruption?

This is the first case study in a new series highlighting key findings from ELI’s latest report, Money Talks: Ten Years of Firsthand Corruption Reporting from ELI Investigations, which draws on rare firsthand testimony from inside criminal networks.

In Suriname, ELI’s undercover operatives discovered how a Fujianese criminal organization used routine bribery at ports and airports to move bulk cash and illegal wildlife products — including jaguar parts — disguised as gold or “wild game” meat. Through relationships with key persons of interest (POIs), ELI’s investigators documented the processes through which bribery and corruption were carried out.

In this case, the criminal networks relied heavily on the help of shipping agents and dock workers who accepted “tips” to prioritize the movement of cargo linked to traffickers. In addition, port inspectors would look for pre-arranged cargo stickers that signaled “do not inspect” agreements.

This case illustrates a critical reality: corruption isn’t just a byproduct of environmental crime — it is the system that enables it to function, adapt, and scale.

At ELI we believe that in order to effectively disrupt corruption, this perspective from within the machinery of crime is essential.

Follow this series as we continue to share what corruption looks like from the inside.

Read the full report: https://earthleagueinternational.org/money-talks-corruption-report/

03/23/2026

What Criminals Told Us About Corruption

Over the next few weeks, Earth League International (ELI) will be sharing a series of case studies from our latest report: Money Talks: Ten Years of Firsthand Corruption Reporting from ELI Investigations.

While most reports rely on open-source data, arrest records, or interviews with law enforcement, this report is built on something far rarer: the direct, firsthand testimony of the criminals themselves.

For more than a decade, ELI’s undercover investigators have embedded within some of the world’s most significant transnational criminal networks — building trust over years, often at great personal risk — to document how corruption actually works from the inside.

Over the coming weeks, we will be highlighting key case studies across dozens of countries, capturing corruption as it unfolds — the negotiations, payments, relationships, and systems that keep it running.

These insights reveal a critical truth: Corruption is the invisible engine driving environmental destruction worldwide. And no law, policy, or institution can stand if corruption is allowed to thrive.

👉 Follow along over the coming weeks to see how corruption really operates. Read the full case studies here: https://earthleagueinternational.org/money-talks-corruption-report/

03/06/2026

Today, Earth League International is proud to release its new report: Money Talks: Ten Years of Firsthand Corruption Reporting from ELI Investigations

This report comes from ten years of direct, undercover intelligence gathered from inside criminal networks themselves. Our unique investigations fill this gap by documenting corruption as it happens—through the negotiations, bribes, pricing structures, risk calculations, and systemic manipulation described and enacted by the perpetrators themselves.

For public and private sector leaders responsible for running institutions, protecting legitimate markets, and guarding the environment, understanding how corruption functions is essential to designing interventions that raise risk, close loopholes, implement accountability, and target the infrastructure enabling organized crime.

In the coming weeks, we will be highlighting key insights and findings from the report. Stay tuned!

View the full report here: https://earthleagueinternational.org/money-talks-corruption-report/

02/26/2026

A CIA for the Planet: How Andrea Crosta Infiltrated Some of the World’s Most Important Trafficking Networks behind Organized Environmental Crime and Other Serious Crimes

At Earth League International (ELI), most of our work happens far from the public eye — undercover, inside criminal networks, and within ongoing intelligence operations that cannot be publicly discussed, and that involve intelligence shared confidentially with government agencies.

For that reason, it’s extremely rare that our Founder and Executive Director, Andrea Crosta, can openly share how this journey began — and how it evolved into infiltrating some of the world’s most dangerous trafficking networks.

We are proud to share Andrea’s recent TED Talk at the TEDxLakeComo, in Italy.

In this talk, Andrea reveals something we rarely discuss publicly:
-The origin story of ELI
-The turning points that shaped our investigative model
-What undercover missions look like
-And how environmental crime converges with drug trafficking, money laundering, --corruption — and even human trafficking

Drawing from a real undercover operation in Mexico City in 2021, what began as an investigation into a “nature” trafficker quickly exposed something much bigger:
Financial links to the Sinaloa Cartel through money laundering,

The involvement of an immigration officer engaged in human trafficking,
A multi-commodity network moving wildlife alongside other illicit goods.
Working alongside former FBI and CIA professionals, we infiltrate networks, identify traffickers and corrupt officials as the true drivers of environmental destruction, and generate actionable intelligence that supports arrests and prosecutions, seizures and other activities behind the scenes.

This is a rare opportunity to hear directly how ELI began, what it really means to infiltrate a trafficking network, how environmental crime connects to cartels and transnational organized crime and why this issue should matter far beyond conservation.

Watch here: https://youtu.be/KmWKAnSKXpc?si=jClCIr33lcjO3jLI

02/16/2026

📣 We’ve just released our latest newsletter.

Inside this edition, we’re sharing something rare:
A glimpse behind Earth League International’s undercover investigations — and the origin story of how our work began.

In a recent TEDx talk at TEDxLakeComo, our Founder and Executive Director, Andrea Crosta, openly reflects on:

• How ELI was built
• What it truly means to infiltrate wildlife trafficking networks
• How environmental crime connects to cartels, money laundering, corruption, and human trafficking
• Why this is not just a conservation issue — but a global security issue

Drawing from a real 2021 undercover operation in Mexico City, Andrea recounts how a so-called “nature” trafficker revealed financial links to the Sinaloa Cartel, corrupt officials, and multi-commodity criminal networks.

This is criminal convergence — and it is central to ELI’s investigative approach.

The talk is delivered in Italian with English subtitles.

Our field operations continue across Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the United States. Two major reports — including Operation ENCANTO (Colombian Amazon) and Operation SANDOKAN (Cambodia & Vietnam) — will be released in 2026.

Read the newsletter and watch the TEDx talk here: https://mailchi.mp/earthleagueinternational.org/eli-2024-impact-14188554

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