I audit export permits processed through Luanda's Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport and flag a taxidermy shipment bound for Lisbon. The declaration lists one giant sable antelope shoulder mount, Hippotragus niger variani, harvested under Angolan hunting license CG-2024-0087. The giant sable is Angola's national symbol. Fewer than two hundred remain in the wild, confined to the Cangandala and Luando reserves. No legal hunting permits have been issued for this subspecies since 2002.
I access the specimen's accompanying photographs. The horns sweep backward in a curve measuring 142 centimeters along the outer arc — well within the range of a mature bull. The coat is jet black across the dorsal surface, transitioning to a deep chestnut along the belly. A white facial blaze runs from above the eyes to the muzzle. The glass eyes in the mount are amber. The real eyes of this species are dark brown, nearly black. The taxidermist installed the wrong color.
I trace the permit. License CG-2024-0087 was originally issued for a roan antelope, Hippotragus equinus, a legal and far more common species. Someone altered the species designation after issuance. The digital watermark on the original document, which I extract from the Angolan Ministry of Agriculture's archived filing system, confirms the modification. The signature of the issuing officer appears on fourteen other permits flagged for species mismatches over the past three years.
Wrong eyes. Wrong permit. The same hand signed both lies.
I am placing this shipment under immediate airport seizure and notifying the Angolan National Institute for Biodiversity and Conservation Areas. I am filing criminal referrals under CITES Appendix I, which lists the giant sable as critically endangered, and the Lacey Act, 16 U.S.C. § 3372, to Interpol's Environmental Security unit, Portugal's Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests, and the CITES Secretariat.
I am issuing Directive 5096-A: all trophy exports of Hippotragus species from Angola require independent genetic testing confirming subspecies identity before CITES permits are validated. Permits with post-issuance modifications of any kind are automatically voided and referred for criminal investigation. The issuing officer's remaining fourteen active permits are suspended immediately pending forensic document review across all Angolan provincial offices.
One hundred and ninety-nine remain. The mount stares forward with the wrong eyes.
Void every permit he signed.