G-MEN NAILING TROPHY HUNTER’S HEAD TO THE WALL
ACREEP who boasts he’s a big game hunter was busted while trying to sneak the carcasses of eight endangered critters into the U.S. following an illegal $50,000 safari to the wilds of Pakistan, federal lawmen say.
Among the tragic trophies was a Ladakh urial, a bighorned sheep — an animal so rare one expert estimates only 180 are left roaming in the region.
Federal officials charge Jason Keith Bruce, 49, paid Pir Danish Ali, 43, head of a Pakistani hunting outfitter, $50,000 to help him gun down the rare animals and smuggle the illegal animal hides and heads into the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Inspector David Yake says the exotic sheep carry “the highest order of protection” and a hunter would need permission from the U.S. and Pakistan to kill the animal and import the trophy.
Instead, Bruce hired Ali to help him bag the rare longhorn and sneak it into America through the San Francisco airport in 2018 with forged official Pakistani papers identifying the animal as a different species that was legal to hunt, say U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents.
Ali and his group are also reportedly suspected of aiding 25 kill-crazy hunters to smuggle 97 illegally slaughtered carcasses using fake documents from 2013 to 2018.
Federal agents say bloodthirsty Bruce of Galt, Calif., first contacted Ali in 2016 and began plotting his illegal hunting trip, which led to his arrest two years later. Bruce now faces a total of 26 years behind bars and fines of up to $550,000 if convicted of charges including conspiracy to violate the Endangered Species Act, false statements and smuggling.
Ali faces five years in the slammer and a $250,000 fine if convicted of conspiracy to break the endangered species law. Both men insist they did nothing wrong.