Federal agents raided two plants in Tennessee yesterday where the legendary Gibson guitars are made, in what is believed to be an investigation of the illegal harvesting of rare woods.
Agents from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service along with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shut down Gibson’s operations in Nashville and Memphis about 9 a.m. and evacuated hundreds of employees.
“Today, we’re serving search warrants at the Gibson Guitar Corp. in Memphis and Nashville,” Wildlife Service Special Agent Nicholas Chavez said from his New Mexico office. He said the guitar maker was cooperating with the searches and that no arrests had been made.
A Department of Justice spokesman in Washington, D.C., said the raids were “pursuant to an ongoing investigation” but declined to elaborate.
A Gibson spokesman said he was unaware of the raid.
“Until I know more, I’m not going to make any comment,” he added.
Another source at Gibson, who spoke on condition of anonymity, complained that rival guitar makers may have been behind the raid.
Law enforcement sources said the searchers were directly related to a Nov. 17, 2009, raid on Gibson’s Nashville facility, where agents seized wood, guitars, computers and boxes of files.
“You can put two and two together,” one source said.
The 2009 raid was prompted by allegations that Gibson was violating the Lacey Act. Established in 1900, the law prohibits the acquisition or moving of endangered plants and trees that could do damage to domestic animals, fish and birds. In 2008, the law was expanded to cover a wider spectrum of plants and aimed to restrict logging of certain species of rare wood.
Violations are punishable by heavy fines and possible jail time.
The Gibson raids are focused on the company’s alleged dealings with the illegal harvest, logging and pillaging of precious woods — rosewood and ebony trees from Madagascar — to produce the stringed instruments cherished by marquee musicians such as Paul McCartney, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton, among others.
Last year, Furniture Today published an inventory of the allegedly illegal wares seized from Gibson, as detailed in documents filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Middle District office in Tennessee: “A pallet of finger boards, two other pallets of ebony wood products, ebony necks, drying ebony, plus a good many records and six guitars.”
The documents cite a suspicious shipment destined for Gibson that contained contraband from Madagascar. Authorities said they were able to trace the package, which had been sent via Newark, N.J., by a German company called Nagel.
Authorities declared the parcel to be worth $76,437 and said it contained “5,200 pieces of sawn ebony and 2,133 pieces of sawn Madagascar ebony.”
The court documents cited by the trade publication alleged Nagel bought the timber from Roger Thunam, a Madagascar supplier who allegedly dealt “exclusively in illegal ebony.”
In Memphis, buses of international tourists hoping to get a tour of the Gibson Guitar factory were turned around after they encountered handwritten notes taped on the plant’s locked front doors.
“I was looking forward to getting in there,” Gian Gucciardo, 44, a tourist from Australia, told The Commercial Appeal.
David Thompson, owner of a portable storage company in Nashville near Gibson’s warehouse, said that in May last year, after a massive flood, he witnessed workers throwing thousands of Gibson guitars into the garbage.
“They threw away two 53-foot floor-to-ceiling semi-truck trailers worth of guitars. They were just chucking them," Thompson said.
He said he asked one security guard why the company was getting rid of the guitars.
“I was fascinated. I asked, ‘Are you guys just throwing them away?’ and they said their sewers had backed up in the plant.”
Thompson didn’t see any damage to the precious instruments.
“They looked all right to me.”
Agents from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service along with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shut down Gibson’s operations in Nashville and Memphis about 9 a.m. and evacuated hundreds of employees.
“Today, we’re serving search warrants at the Gibson Guitar Corp. in Memphis and Nashville,” Wildlife Service Special Agent Nicholas Chavez said from his New Mexico office. He said the guitar maker was cooperating with the searches and that no arrests had been made.
A Department of Justice spokesman in Washington, D.C., said the raids were “pursuant to an ongoing investigation” but declined to elaborate.
A Gibson spokesman said he was unaware of the raid.
“Until I know more, I’m not going to make any comment,” he added.
Another source at Gibson, who spoke on condition of anonymity, complained that rival guitar makers may have been behind the raid.
Law enforcement sources said the searchers were directly related to a Nov. 17, 2009, raid on Gibson’s Nashville facility, where agents seized wood, guitars, computers and boxes of files.
“You can put two and two together,” one source said.
The 2009 raid was prompted by allegations that Gibson was violating the Lacey Act. Established in 1900, the law prohibits the acquisition or moving of endangered plants and trees that could do damage to domestic animals, fish and birds. In 2008, the law was expanded to cover a wider spectrum of plants and aimed to restrict logging of certain species of rare wood.
Violations are punishable by heavy fines and possible jail time.
The Gibson raids are focused on the company’s alleged dealings with the illegal harvest, logging and pillaging of precious woods — rosewood and ebony trees from Madagascar — to produce the stringed instruments cherished by marquee musicians such as Paul McCartney, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton, among others.
Last year, Furniture Today published an inventory of the allegedly illegal wares seized from Gibson, as detailed in documents filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Middle District office in Tennessee: “A pallet of finger boards, two other pallets of ebony wood products, ebony necks, drying ebony, plus a good many records and six guitars.”
The documents cite a suspicious shipment destined for Gibson that contained contraband from Madagascar. Authorities said they were able to trace the package, which had been sent via Newark, N.J., by a German company called Nagel.
Authorities declared the parcel to be worth $76,437 and said it contained “5,200 pieces of sawn ebony and 2,133 pieces of sawn Madagascar ebony.”
The court documents cited by the trade publication alleged Nagel bought the timber from Roger Thunam, a Madagascar supplier who allegedly dealt “exclusively in illegal ebony.”
In Memphis, buses of international tourists hoping to get a tour of the Gibson Guitar factory were turned around after they encountered handwritten notes taped on the plant’s locked front doors.
“I was looking forward to getting in there,” Gian Gucciardo, 44, a tourist from Australia, told The Commercial Appeal.
David Thompson, owner of a portable storage company in Nashville near Gibson’s warehouse, said that in May last year, after a massive flood, he witnessed workers throwing thousands of Gibson guitars into the garbage.
“They threw away two 53-foot floor-to-ceiling semi-truck trailers worth of guitars. They were just chucking them," Thompson said.
He said he asked one security guard why the company was getting rid of the guitars.
“I was fascinated. I asked, ‘Are you guys just throwing them away?’ and they said their sewers had backed up in the plant.”
Thompson didn’t see any damage to the precious instruments.
“They looked all right to me.”
