PORT MANSFIELD – Texas Game Wardens arrested a local hunting outfitter and two others for illegally guiding nilgai hunts on private property. The suspects used airboats and thermal optics to take clients on hunts for the exotic animals, operating a sophisticated scheme and profiting from illegal activity.
The individuals have been charged with hunting exotic animals without landowner consent, theft of exotic livestock and engaging in organized criminal activity.
The arrests were the result of a nearly year-long investigation by Texas Game Wardens in the Rio Grande Valley area. Warrants were served on multiple properties simultaneously and were executed with the support of multiple game wardens, including the Texas Game Warden Rural Operations Group, as well as Homeland Security Investigations, due to the organized criminal activity aspect of the case.
The case remains under investigation and no further details are available at this time.
Nilgai, native to India and Pakistan, were imported to Texas in the 1920s.
