One of the headless bulls | NMDW
When it comes to solving poaching cases, you’ve got to think that wardens just love when the criminals do a lot of the heavy lifting for them. Whether that be by snapping pictures on their phones, bragging about it on social media or trying to move illegal animal parts in online marketplaces, the digital evidence, thankfully, lasts forever.
Such was the case in a recent case out of New Mexico when the state’s Department of Wildlife say they received multiple tips through their Operation Game Thief hotline. Those tips led wildlife officers into the Jemez Mountains, on to social media and into online sale platforms where cervid contraband was on the move.
The initial tips that came into the department were focused on a pair of headless bull elk that were carelessly left to rot. One tipster came forward telling officers that he actually had eyes on both of the bulls through his spotting scope as he watched two ‘hunters’ shoot them. That was enough to get wardens to tie up their boots and hike into the Jemez to check things out. Upon their arrival, officers located the two headless bulls, complete with all edible meat still intact, and pulled DNA samples for testing.
In addition to the location of the bulls, the witness also offered investigating officers a few screenshots that he believed they might find interesting. Those screenshots were of the suspected poacher’s social media profile and depicted him smiling away with his hands wrapped tightly around the only part of the animal he bothered to pack out. Those photos were crucial in helping officers pin that photo to the landscape at the kill site. In addition to the grip and grin, much to the officer’s surprise, they were soon treated to another opportunity to get up close and personal with one of the deceased bulls and the man who shot them.
Cruising online marketplace listings (reports do not indicate which one), investigating officers were dumbfounded to find that the audacious poacher went as far as listing one of the heads for sale. Conservation officers wasted no time bidding up the price and making the purchase on what was probably more of a trophy for them than it would be for any one else.
That purchase led to a set of cuffs for our enterprising poacher who was charged on the spot for unlawful sale of wildlife. It didn’t take long for search warrants to be deployed, which turned up a whole lot more, allowing officers to match DNA from the heads to the abandoned carcasses.
Now with DNA matches, a witness, some lovely photography and an illegal buy on the books, a full blown confession soon followed. During questioning, the suspect confessed that he did in fact have a license for one elk, but killed two and then wasted them both.
As of right now, no names have been released and nothing past the arrest for the unlawful sale has been filed in public. On the confession, though, he is looking at more than a bad listing. New Mexico's waste-of-game law treats leaving the quarters, backstraps and tenderloins as its own offense, and killing an elk without a license and taking only the head is a fourth-degree felony, separate from the sale. Fines, jail and a lengthy license suspension are all on the table.
