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Tag: Illegal Wildlife Trafficking

  • Texas couple arrested for jaguar cub deal in first case charged under Big Cat Public Safety Act

    Texas couple arrested for jaguar cub deal in first case charged under Big Cat Public Safety Act

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    A couple in Texas has been arrested after allegedly selling a margay cub and attempting to sell a jaguar cub in the first case charged under the Big Cat Public Safety Act, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

    Rafael Gutierrez-Galvan, 29, and his wife, Deyanira Garza, 28, both of Alamo, appeared in federal court in McAllen on Wednesday, the Justice Department said in a news release.

    According to the criminal complaint, Rafael Gutierrez-Galvan tried to sell a jaguar cub.

    Justice Department


    According to the criminal complaint, Gutierrez-Galvan sold a margay cub last month for $7,500 in a parking lot of a sporting goods store.

    This week, Gutierrez-Galvan then tried to sell a jaguar cub to the same person, allegedly instructing his wife to bring a case of cash from their home to the location of the deal, prosecutors said. While she was en route to the transaction, however, law enforcement officers conducted a traffic stop and allegedly found the cash.

    Authorities recovered both the margay and jaguar and released images of the cubs.

    Gutierrez-Galvan and Garza — neither of whom have a license to buy, sell, trade or transport exotic animals — face up to five years in federal prison and a possible $20,000 maximum fine.

    U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Homeland Security Investigations spearheaded the case with the assistance from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Houston and San Antonio Zoos, officials said.

    The Big Cat Public Safety Act was enacted last December and bans the importation, sale and possession of prohibited wildlife species, such as tigers, jaguars and leopards. Jaguars are also listed as an endangered and are therefore protected under the 50-year-old Endangered Species Act.

    With only about 173,000 jaguars left in the wild, the animals are considered “near threatened,” according to the World Animal Protection. They typically live in rainforests and wetlands with about half of the world’s population living in Brazil.

    margay-0.jpg
    According to the criminal complaint, Rafael Gutierrez-Galvan sold a margay cub last month for $7,500 in a parking lot of a sporting goods store.

    Justice Department


    Margays, which resemble ocelots, are “among the most beautiful and mysterious of the spotted cats in the Americas,” according to the International Society for Endangered Cats. The margay is classified “near threatened” by the IUCN Red List. In Costa Rica and Mexico it is considered as “threatened,” and in Argentina and Brazil as “vulnerable,” according to the society.

    Stephen Smith

    Stephen Smith is a senior editor for CBSNews.com.

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  • Nearly 400 primate skulls headed for U.S. collectors seized in

    Nearly 400 primate skulls headed for U.S. collectors seized in

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    Customs agents at France’s largest airport have spent months stockpiling a shocking discovery – the trafficked skulls and other remains of more than 700 animals headed for the U.S. 

    The skulls were found at the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, the largest international airport in the country. Customs officers tweeted about the incident on Thursday, saying they found the skulls in “several seizures” across the airport. 

    Remains of the animals were found from May through December last year, officials said, with 392 packages housing primate skulls, including macaques, baboons, mandrills and chimpanzees. Those packages were mostly from Cameroon and were meant to go to people in the U.S. More than 300 other packages contained the remains of other species – and none of the seized remains were legally authorized for sale. 

    According to Al Jazeera, whole animals and arms and hands were also discovered in some packages. 

    “Trafficking in protected species is one of the most lucrative trades, after drugs, weapons and people trafficking,” airport customs chief Gilbert Beltran said, adding that it generates between $8.5 billion and $21 billion every year. 

    According to Fabrice Gayet, a customs expert in animal trafficking, primates are generally hunted for their meat. 

    “The sale of the skulls,” he said, “is a follow-on business.”

    f6jvdldxwaaqd8c.jpg
    Hundreds of skulls and other animal remains have been found over the course of several months at France’s largest airport. 

    French Customs/Douane Francaise via Storyful


    Photos of the remains show well-preserved skulls of various species. Customs officials said they have since been given to the Natural History Museum in Aix-en-Provence. 

    Sabrina Krief, a primatologist at the museum, posted on social media that the “staggering” discovery revealed an attempt to traffic the remains “to collectors and hunting associations” in the U.S.

    “I am stunned to think that our closest relatives, apes and great apes, are being decimated and rainforests robbed of their endangered biodiversity for a business that is as stupid as it is outrageous,” Krief also said, according to Al Jazeera.

    Li Cohen


    li.jpg

    Li Cohen is a social media producer and trending content writer for CBS News.

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  • “Tiger King” star “Doc” Antle convicted of wildlife trafficking in Virginia

    “Tiger King” star “Doc” Antle convicted of wildlife trafficking in Virginia

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    Winchester, Va. — – A wild animal trainer featured in the popular Netflix series “Tiger King” has been convicted of wildlife trafficking in Virginia, the attorney general’s office announced Tuesday.

    Bhagavan “Doc” Antle was accused of illegally buying endangered lion cubs in Frederick County, Virginia, for display and profit at his South Carolina zoo, Attorney General Jason Miyares said in a news release. A jury convicted Antle on Friday of two felony counts each of wildlife trafficking and conspiring to wildlife traffic.

    Antle, who owns the Myrtle Beach Safari, appeared in “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness,” a Netflix documentary miniseries that focused on tiger breeders.

    The jury acquitted Antle of five counts of animal cruelty and Judge Alexander Iden dismissed four additional animal cruelty charges against Antle and all charges against his two adult daughters, The Winchester Star reported.

    bhagavan-doc-antle.jpg
    This image provided by the Horry County Sheriff’s Office in Conway, S.C., shows Bhagavan “Doc” Antle, who was arrested by the FBI on June 3, 2022, on federal money laundering charges.

    Horry County Sheriff’s Office via AP


    Prosecutor Michelle Welch said Myrtle Beach Safari’s lucrative petting zoo motivated Antle to maintain a steady supply of immature lion cubs that he purchased from Wilson’s Wild Animal Park near Winchester, calling the arrangement a “cub pipeline” from Virginia to South Carolina.

    When Antle and Keith Wilson, the park’s former owner, began doing business in 2015, it was still legal to buy and sell lions, Welch said. But after lions were designated as an endangered species in December 2015, lions could only be traded between zoos and wildlife preserves that were part of an established breeding program and had permits. There were three illegal cub exchanges in 2017, 2018 and 2019, Welch said.

    Antle was indicted in 2020 on several offenses including felony counts of wildlife trafficking and conspiracy. In August 2019, 119 animals – including lions, tigers, bears, camels, goats and water buffalo – were seized from Wilson’s roadside zoo after a judge found that Wilson “cruelly treated, neglected, or deprived” the animals of adequate care.

    Wilson testified that Antle paid him in advance under the guise of a donation. He said Antle paid $2,500 to $3,000 per cub with the exception of the 2017 transaction when Antle traded three lynx kittens for three lion cubs.

    Wilson is charged with nine misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty and 10 felony counts of selling an endangered species and a hearing in his case is scheduled for Friday.

    Defense attorney Erin Harrigan called Antle’s prosecution politically motivated in response to a growing public outcry against wild animals being exploited for entertainment purposes.

    “This has been an agenda in search of a crime from the beginning of the investigation,” Harrigan said.

    Harrigan maintained that the cubs were gifts and Antle sent Wilson donations for an expanded tiger habitat.

    “These were not sales,” Harrigan said.

    Iden allowed Antle, who faces up to 20 years in prison, to remain free on bond pending sentencing on Sept. 14. 

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  • 1,000 pounds of illegally caught sharks seized by Coast Guard

    1,000 pounds of illegally caught sharks seized by Coast Guard

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    Roughly 1,000 pounds of illegally caught shark was seized by the U.S. Coast Guard in Southern Texas on Sunday, authorities said. 

    A South Padre Island Coast Guard crew spotted four Mexican fishermen alongside the coastline in a lancha, a slender speed boat often used to fish illegally during the day, the Coast Guard said in a news release on its website. U.S. Coast Guard crews often seize illegal captures of red snapper, sharks and other types of fish. At night, the lanchas can be used to traffic drugs between Matamoros, Mexico, and Texas, according to research conducted by the Southeast Fisheries Science Center and the Coast Guard.

    Video taken by the U.S. Coast Guard aircrew showed the four fishermen wearing fluorescent green waders pulling sharks from the side of their boat. When authorities pulled over the men, in addition to the sharks, they found fishing gear, radios, GPS devices and high flyer fishing poles on board, authorities said. 

    The sharks were seized and the fisherman were transferred to border enforcement agents for processing, the Coast Guard said.

    Sergeant James Dunks, a game warden with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, told NPR in 2011 that people from Playa Bagdad, a small fishing village south of the border, come across searching for fish. 

    “They have just pretty much claimed that they have fished all their fish out of their end of the water, so that’s why they’ve been coming across,” Dunks told NPR.

    A 2021 study showed humans are to blame for the 70%  decline in shark and ray populations around the world. If overfishing isn’t stopped the species could soon be wiped out completely.

    Texas has long been a hot spot for shark fishing and trade. In 2015, Texas banned the trade of shark fins after the state emerged as a “trading hub” when the practice was banned elsewhere, said nonprofit Oceana in a press release. 

    Anglers can fish for sharks in Texas waters and can catch one shark daily, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife. Anglers are prohibited from catching 22 specific shark species but can catch 16 other species, said the Texas Farm Bureau. These restrictions are “for consistent enforcement within state waters,” said Dakus Geeslin, TPWD deputy director of Coastal Fisheries in the news release.

    Cara Tabachnick

    Cara Tabachnick is a news editor for CBSNews.com. Contact her at cara.tabachnick@cbsinteractive.com

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