Earth League International
Description
Earth League International, ELI, also known through its whistleblowing initiative WildLeaks, is an investigative non-governmental organisation. It treats environmental crime as never isolated, because the people who traffic ivory, pangolins, timber or fish are frequently the same individuals involved in money laundering, corruption, drug trafficking and human trafficking. ELI focuses on what it calls Environmental Crime Convergence, the point where environmental and other serious transnational crimes meet, and applies professional intelligence tradecraft to expose the networks behind it.
Its investigators and undercover operators work in the field, from the Amazon to trafficking hubs across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. They build relationships and cultivate sources inside criminal networks over months or years, to document poaching, trafficking, illegal logging, fishing and mining, deforestation and land grabbing, and to trace how the profits are moved and laundered. The organisation describes itself as a fact-finding body rather than an advocacy group: it investigates, verifies and reports. It produces Confidential Intelligence Briefs, Situational Reports and Target Profiles for law enforcement, government agencies and policy makers in the United States and abroad, and custom intelligence and field research for foundations, research centres and think tanks.
Over more than a decade, its work has exposed high-level traffickers, middlemen and corrupt officials across more than thirty countries. It also supported law enforcement operations and arrests, contributed to official investigations, and reached broad audiences through media collaborations, including a magazine cover story and documentaries. Its team includes former officers of United States law enforcement and intelligence agencies alongside criminal-network analysts, geospatial-intelligence specialists and financial investigators.
Earth League International is a registered non-profit, tax-exempt charity in the United States, based in Los Angeles, California.
Latest news
ELI’s Monthly Intelligence Brief Series: The Global Illegal Turtle Trade
ELI-Enabled Turtle Seizure Part of a Larger Global Wildlife Trafficking Trend On December 10, 2025, during ELI’s Operation VALLARTA, intelligence provided to USG authorities by ELI led to the seizure of 930 live endangered turtles at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). This was a...
16 Sep 2026
Trafficking Diaries™ – What Traffickers Told Us, Recorded Undercover: Case Study 01
Trafficking Diaries™ – What Traffickers Told Us, Recorded Undercover By Andrea Crosta, Founder and Executive Director, Earth League International (ELI) Today I start this series of mini case studies called Trafficking Diaries™, to provide food for thought to government agencies, policymakers...
9 Sep 2026
ELI’s New Monthly Intelligence Brief Series: the Donkey Skin Trade
INSIDE THE TRAFFICKING NETWORKS: ELI’S New Monthly Intelligence Brief Series. This month, ELI is excited to launch a new monthly series of concise intelligence briefs that share information, analysis, and findings emerging directly from our field operations and intelligence work. Between our...
16 Jul 2026
Operation SANDOKAN: Major New Investigation into Southeast Asia’s Biggest Wildlife Traffickers
OPERATION SANDOKAN: Unmasking the Lower Mekong’s Biggest Wildlife Traffickers ELI Releases Major Investigation into Cambodia’s Wildlife Trafficking Networks and Their Links to Organized Crime, Scam Compounds, and Corruption New report and accompanying undercover video reveal the inner workings...
1 Jun 2026
Operation VALLARTA ELI Intelligence Leads to What Is Believed to Be One of the Largest Single Seizures of Live Trafficked Wildlife at a U.S. Airport: 930 Endangered Turtles Intercepted at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Including One of the World’s Rarest Species, dealing a $7M blow...
22 May 2026
ELI and Johnny Harris on Flying Money: How Criminals Move Trillions Without a Trace
Earth League International Collaborates with Emmy-Winning Independent Filmmaker Johnny Harris to Expose “Flying Money” — The Shadow Financial System Fueling Global Crime As part of ELI’s commitment to not only investigating but also raising global awareness of the most dangerous and poorly...
17 Apr 2026
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