Teen sentenced to 6 months for smuggling tiger cub across border
When Luis Eudoro Valencia was caught at the border last summer with a tiger cub riding shotgun on the floorboards of a Camaro, he held himself out to be a naive 18-year-old who had bought the wild animal on impulse after seeing one being walked on a leash on the streets of Tijuana.
But prosecutors say the smuggling scheme was not just an ill-advised pet purchase.
His cellphone records unveiled what appears to be an established cross-border wildlife smuggling business, according to court records filed by the U.S. attorney’s office.
“(T)he monkeys I get them for 2500 and the white tigers for 6k, I mean regular tigers, the white one goes for 10k,” reads one text message he is accused of sending a fox vendor who was in the market for a tiger. “The jaguar goes for 8k and panthers too and the lions go for 5k.”
On Tuesday, Valencia, who had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to illegally import tigers, was sentenced to six months in prison for smuggling the 6-week-old Bengal cub.
“This is a crime against nature, as well as the laws of man, and it requires punishment if we’re going to send a message to the public that we’re not going to tolerate this,” said U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Battaglia during the sentencing hearing.
Lawyers for Valencia tried to paint the defendant as a wildlife enthusiast who impetuously purchased the wild cat with the intention of making it a pet.
“He had a lapse in judgment, allowing his passion for animals and youth to overcome obvious common sense,” Robert Schlein, attorney with Robert Schlein & Associates, told the judge. “He now knows that having wild animals as pets is just not something that’s possible.”
The prosecution, however, said Valencia never intended to keep the animal, providing text messages obtained from the defendant’s phone of conversations about selling a number of federally protected species.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Melanie K. Pierson also outlined a family history of drug sales and money laundering, which included Valencia’s father and grandfather.
“The defendant’s history and characteristics are far more consistent with a junior member of a smuggling organization rather than an innocent young man who made a youthful error in judgment,” Pierson said.
As for the cub, that’s a happier ending. Named Moka, which means “chance,” the cub became a media darling and popular addition to the San Diego Safari Zoo Park. His seizure prompted the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., to send an orphan Sumatran tiger cub to be his companion. He is named Rakan, or “friend.”
Moka could grow to weigh as much as 600 pounds.
Illicit wildlife trafficking is estimated to be a $7 billion to $23 billion global industry, with the U.S. being the second-largest market behind China, according to experts. The ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border are a major thoroughfare for such black-market animals.
Valencia was stopped at the San Ysidro Port of Entry on Aug. 23, driving a Camaro with no license plates. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer spotted a small animal at the feet of his passenger, Eriberto Paniagua. The passenger said at first it was “just a cat,” but a closer inspection found otherwise.
Paniagua produced paperwork indicating the tiger was shipped via Aeromexico Cargo from Mexico City to Tijuana and stated falsely that the species is not covered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES. Under CITES, a license is required to import such animals.
Valencia first told agents that he had bought the cub for $300 that same day after he saw a man walking a larger tiger on a leash in Tijuana. But agents found text messages on his phone and made him acknowledge that he made the purchase arrangements days earlier.
A further probe of his cellphone revealed Valencia had intended on smuggling a second cub that day, according to court records. In a conversation with the seller, Valencia discussed giving the cub anesthesia for the trip and fitting it into a truck.
“it can’t be sedated. At that age it will die,” the vendor wrote about a 5-monthold cub.
Valencia responded: “What can we do so it doesn’t make any noises?” and “Can it be given a little bit of anesthesia?”
The vendor answered that the cub would fall asleep after it ate.
A photo was then sent of Paniagua, appearing to measure a secret nonfactory compartment under the back seat of a vehicle. “Do you think the big one will fit?” Valencia asked.
The vendor gave the price of $9,500 for “the white one” and warned Valencia to stay away from the parking lot at the Tijuana airport to avoid federal law enforcement there.