Steven R. Galster (born December 28, 1961, in Detroit, Michigan) is an American environmental and human rights investigator and counter-trafficking program designer.
Since 1987, he has planned and participated in investigations and remedial programs to stop wildlife and human trafficking and to mitigate corruption and build governance in Asia, Africa, Russia, South America, and the USA.
Galster led the National Security Archive's Afghanistan Project, which took him to the field with Soviet soldiers and Mujahedeen rebels, where he documented the trafficking in guns and heroin among all combatants.
His undercover film of the traffickers with their stockpiles acquired from North Korean diplomats and other sources was aired on CNN and used by Chinese police to locate the contraband and arrest the gang.
[12] The film was released in 1997 and received widespread media coverage in the US and abroad, including specials on ABC Primetime Live, CNN, and BBC.
In October 2004, Galster wrote the opening speech for the 13th UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna CITES, delivered by then Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, proposing the creation of a Southeast Asian Regional Wildlife Enforcement Network.
Together with other US State Department projects, Galster worked with his senior staff members, to supervise $30 million of USG-sponsored governance, law enforcement, and behavior change activities over the next 10 years to reduce wildlife crimes in Southeast Asia and China.
Its team of law enforcement, behavior change, and development experts works alongside government officers, local communities and other NGOs in Asia, Africa and the Americas to stop the 200 billion dollar illicit trade in people and wildlife.
[26] African Elephants: Under Galster's direction, a Freeland-backed Task Force identified and arrested over 40 key corrupt government and corporate officers who were operating between Africa and Asia (between 2015 and 2018).
They discovered a wider syndicate encircling this network company, including Vietnamese Organized Crime, corrupt officers from Laos, Thailand, South Africa, and Mozambique.
[33] Galster investigated and traced the supply chain of Hydra and at least one competitor into Africa, setting up an operation in partnership with the Lusaka Agreement Task Force (LATF) and the African Wildlife Foundation.
The Freeland-Africa program helped LATF identify and arrest numerous high level criminals who were supplying illicit elephant tusks, big cat skeletons, pangolin scales, and rhino horns to Asia.
Galster and his investigation team provided key insights to The Guardian newspaper's 3-part series on global wildlife trafficking that identified members and modus operandi of Hydra.