Reports of ivory seizure in New England

Dear Mr. Feathers:

This in response to your request for "the first three pages of all 'Report
of Investigation' documents relating to the seizure of ivory in New England
since 2005."

There is certain information that we routinely withhold under FOIA
exemptions (i.e., personal names, contact information, phone numbers,
values, law enforcement techniques, identity of confidential informants,
etc.). I can offer you two options for these records.

Option 1: When we withhold information, Fish and Wildlife Service policy
requires that we send the records to two external offices (Service FOIA
Officer and the Interior Office of the Solicitor) to review before we can
send out a final response. Once these offices have reviewed and concurred
with our proposed withholdings, we will send you a final response with the
redacted the documents, identification of each FOIA exemption used, and we
will provide you with appeal rights to exercise if you believe you are
entitled to the redacted information.

Option 2: If you prefer a speedier response and are satisfied with the
omission of personal names and identifiers, law enforcement techniques, and
any other information we need to withhold under the FOIA exemptions (
http://www.foia.gov/faq.html#exemptions), you can amend your request to
seek the investigative records in "releasable" form. In this case, we
would not identify the specific FOIA exemptions used nor provide you with
appeal rights. Because we would be providing you with documents as you have
requested, i.e., "in releasable form", we would not be required to send the
documents for the two-level review process.

For both options, we would blackout the same information.

Please let me know if you prefer the documents in releasable form,
understanding that you would not be entitled to appeal rights. If you
prefer to receive appeal rights to contest any withholdings, we can
certainly use our normal routing process. This means the Service FOIA
Officer and the Office of the Solicitor would review our proposed
withholdings before we send you a final response. Because external offices
perform reviews of the requested documents, we cannot gauge how long this
review process will take. However, we will do our best to send a response
to you as soon as possible.

We have no problem preparing a response to you 'in releasable form' or with
full review and appeal rights. Please let me know which method you prefer:
releasable form or with full appeal rights.

You may also use this opportunity to narrow the scope of your request. We
are categorizing your request as "complex" as it involves investigative
records that will need to be scrutinized to determine if any information is
exempt from release. As such, this request will take significant
additional time to complete (depending on the processing option you
select). You may want to consider reducing the time frame of records you
are seeking.

Please let me know how you would like us to proceed with your request.
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Circee J. Pieters
Chief, Branch of Planning and Analysis
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Law Enforcement
4401 N. Fairfax Drive (LE-3000), Arlington, VA 22203
Office: 703-358-1949 Fax: 703-358-2346

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Todd Feathers <requests@muckrock.com>
Date: Fri, Jan 31, 2014 at 2:17 PM
Subject: Freedom of Information Request: Reports of ivory seizure in New
England
To: MaryLou_DeFilippo@fws.gov

January 31, 2014
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Region 5
MaryLou DeFilippo, FOIA Coordinator
Ecological Services
300 Westgate Drive
Hadley, MA 01035

To Whom It May Concern:

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request
the following records:

The first three pages of all "Report of Investigation" documents relating
to the seizure of ivory in New England since 2005.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this
request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made
available to the general public free of charge as part of the public
information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the
news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for
commercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would
inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would
prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available
or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I
look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business
days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Todd Feathers

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com

For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 10357
PO Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819

PLEASE NOTE the new address as well as the fact that improperly addressed
(i.e., with the requester's name rather than MuckRock News) requests might
be returned by the USPS as undeliverable.

--
MaryLou DeFilippo
FOIA Coordinator/External Affairs Secretary
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
300 Westgate Center Drive
Hadley, MA 01035
Phone: 413-253-8561
E-Mail: MaryLou_Defilippo@fws.gov
--
Pam Dansereau
Investigative Analyst
USFWS, Office of Law Enforcement
300 Westgate Center Drive
Hadley, MA 01035-9589
Phone: (413) 253-8347 Fax: (413) 253-8459

This is in response to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request of
January 31, 2014, seeking, "the first three pages of all 'Report of
Investigation' documents relating to the seizure of ivory in New England
since 2005." You amended your request on February 11, 2014, to accept the
documents in releasable form.

We have attached records in response to your amended request. These
records are comprised of the first three pages of 52 investigative case
files, in releasable form. As you will note, we have blacked out
information that would generally not be released in response to FOIA
requests.

This completes our response to your FOIA request.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Circee J. Pieters
Chief, Branch of Planning and Analysis
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Law Enforcement
4401 N. Fairfax Drive (LE-3000), Arlington, VA 22203
Office: 703-358-1949 Fax: 703-358-2346