Trafficking case offers glimpse into animal trade
Thousands of creatures smuggled annually between Mexico and the US
MEXICO CITY - Just south of the U.S. border, the trafficker was preparing to load his car with contraband when he got a message from his accomplice.
For years, the men had carried out one the most successful cross-border trades in illicit wildlife, moving millions of dollars in exotic animals across the Rio Grande, many of them endangered species.
There were the crocodiles, the boa constrictors, the Central American river turtles. But this morning’s run was particularly challenging: six adult toucans, known for their loud squawk.
“Tape their beaks so they do not make noise and tie them up very well,” one trafficker messaged the other.
What the two men didn’t know was that their communications would wind up in the hands of U.S. federal prosecutors. Those intercepts - over more than four years - led this month to one of the country’s highest profile convictions of a cross-border wildlife trafficker.
Jorge Alonso Gutierrez, a Mexican citizen, was sentenced to three years in prison for his “role in a conspiracy to smuggle protected reptiles from Mexico to the United States,” the Justice Department announced.
The Justice Department’s indictment included a startling glimpse into the inner workings of the wildlife trade between Mexico and the United States, where thousands of animals are trafficked every year. Between 2015 and 2020, Gutierrez helped smuggle more than $3.5 million dollars in exotic animals between the border cities of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and El Paso - the epicenter of the cross-border trade, according to government statistics.
Once Gutierrez helped get the animals across the border, investigators said, his accomplices put them in boxes and mailed them across the United States. Over and over, U.S. postal workers were unknowingly delivering endangered species - some of them extremely venomous.
Between 2007 and 2017, nearly a third of all wildlife seizures in the United States were made in El Paso, an average of roughly one exotic animal seizure per day. Gutierrez was part of the reason the border city had become a cornerstone of the trade.
“Gutierrez was an important target within this conspiracy, because he served as a ‘clearing house’ for all of the wildlife this group trafficked from Mexico into the United States,” said Gary Donner, the lead federal prosecutor in the case.
The range of the animals confiscated at the El Paso port of entry and at other border crossings is vast - from plastic bags of salamanders to duffel bags of tiger cubs and trailers of addax antelope. But Gutierrez had come to specialize in birds and reptiles, in part because of the growing demand among U.S. customers.
Mexico’s own environmental protection agency has recently made high-profile raids, seizing animals from stash houses that appeared to be destined for the United States. Last November, Mexican law enforcement agents seized more than 15,000 animals in two properties in Mexico City, most of which were species protected under the international agreement regulating the trade of wild animals.
Mexico has the second most reptile species in the world, behind Australia, making it a major source for traffickers of snakes, lizards and turtles.
Gutierrez often received the animals at the airport in Ciudad Juárez and he paid airport employees not to inspect the packages, according to the Justice Department investigation. He then handed the animals to another trafficker, Alejandro Carrillo, who smuggled them by car into El Paso. Carrillo was sentenced in March to one year and eight months in prison.
“Once in the United States, the wildlife was shipped via FedEx or U.S. Postal Service to U.S.-based customers. On many occasions, animals died during transport,” the Justice Department said in a statement.