If it existed, he could get it and he would be happy to sell it to you for an impressive mark-up. When it came to selling butterflies, particularly endangered species that were protected under international treaties, Yoshi Kojima was the big kahuna. Shopping List - from an AP story on USA Today Jessica Speart, a mystery writer with ten novels to her credit, heard from a man in the Fish and Wildlife Service about the agency’s pursuit of one of the greatest smugglers of modern times, and decided to switch to non-fiction for once. What she didn't know was that this cagey smuggler was planning to turn the tables and use her as a patsy for continuing his illegal butterfly trade. Like Newcomer, she was going to betray Kojima. Working under-cover to research this book, Jessica Speart befriended Kojima as well. This obsession, along with his continued mania for butterflies, could finally spell the downfall of the untouchable smuggler.īut the story doesn't end there. Somewhere in the hunt, Kojima had become obsessed with the agent. Just when it seemed Kojima was out of reach, Newcomer was given one last chance to reel him in. But twice the agent's inexperience allowed this criminal, with a nearly supernatural sense of survival and an overwhelming sense of paranoia, to get away. Fish and Wildlife Agent Ed Newcomer became close to the smuggler, posing as a young apprentice eager to learn the smuggling trade. Requires OverDrive Read (file size: N/A KB) or Adobe Digital Editions (file size: 1546 KB) or Kobo app or compatible Kobo device (file size: N/A KB) or Amazon Kindle (file size: N/A KB).One of the world's most beautiful endangered species, butterflies are as lucrative as gorillas, pandas, and rhinos on the black market.Īnd in this cutthroat $200 million business, no one made more money than-or posed as great an ecological danger as-Yoshi Kojima, the kingpin of butterfly smugglers.ĭetermined to capture Kojima, rookie U.S.

Speart chronicles her own attempts, while researching the book, to befriend Kojima before betraying him-unaware that the cagey smuggler had his own plans to make the writer a player in his illegal butterfly trade. Fish and Wildlife Agent Ed Newcomer's determined crusade to halt the career of a brazen and ingenious criminal with an almost supernatural sixth sense for survival. In Winged Obsession, author Jessica Speart tells the riveting true story of rookie U.S.

In this cutthroat $200 million business, no one was more successful-or posed a greater ecological danger-than Yoshi Kojima, the kingpin of butterfly smugglers. One of the world's most beautiful endangered species, butterflies are as lucrative as gorillas, pandas, and rhinos on the black market.

Winged Obsession by Jessica Speart