Texas Game Wardens Hit Suspects with 1,200 Charges in Deer Smuggling Bust

After a South Texas deer breeder and his business partner were caught attempting to smuggle seven deer from a licensed deer breeding facility earlier this month, the investigation has since been blown wide open.

According to Texas Parks and Wildlife, the men were intending on illegally releasing the deer into the wild on a private property for hunting purposes. The two men eventually pleaded guilty to and were convicted of more than 50 violations related to deer breeding in the state of Texas.

And while that bust was seemingly big enough, Texas officials soon learned that what had been uncovered during that routing traffic stop in Houston, turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg.

In a release last week, Texas officials stated that a follow-up investigation into the operation implicated 22 suspects who were allegedly churning out a sophisticated black-market deer breeding scheme across 11 Texas counties.

In total, three deer breeding facilities, ten release sites, one deer management pen, and three illegal, unregistered facilities were involved in the smuggling operation. The smugglers and illegal breeders poached wild deer to replace their own, falsified mandatory Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) tests, and transported potentially contagious deer across the state without the proper paperwork, according to the release

"These individuals and ranches operated with impunity, repeatedly violating established laws designed to protect Texas’ natural resources and safeguard the state’s wildlife against disease transmission," said Col. Ronald VanderRoest, TPWD law enforcement director. "Systematic abuse of the regulatory framework governing the deer breeding industry will not be tolerated as we focus on our mission of conservation law enforcement."

TPWD announced that the suspects are now facing 1,200 criminal charges, which include misdemeanors and state jail felonies. The charges are for "circumventing requirements, disregarding regulations and falsifying official records,"  mostly related to Chronic Wasting Disease and the risk of disease transfer from captive deer to wild populations.

Given the nature of the now on-going investigation, TPWD has not released any names of the suspects or facilities, but has made reference to a number of pending charges.

Some of the charges that have been filed include:

• Class C:

  • Transferring deer without valid antemortem CWD tests

  • Lack of identifying tattoos or valid transfer permits

  • Failure to report mortality within 7 days of detection

  • Failure to submit CWD samples within 7 days of collection

  • Illegally selling and purchasing wild white-tailed deer

  • Hunting deer in a closed season to falsify CWD testing requirements

• Class B:

  • Possession of wild deer in breeder facilities to replace dead breeder deer

  • Multiple Trap, Transport and Transplant (TTT) permit violations

  • Criminal mischief for the destruction of county and state property

• TTT Charges:

  • Illegal trapping, transporting and transplanting of free-ranging white-tailed deer for release for hunting

  • Trapping previously released wild deer and reselling them

  • Illegal operation of unregistered facilities participating in TTT activities

  • Undocumented and unauthorized transportation and release of unidentified fawns

• Class A:

  • Taking white-tailed deer without landowner consent

  • Hunting exotic animals from a public roadway or right of way

• State Jail Felony:

  • Tampering with government records by falsifying information in TWIMS reports

  • Falsifying CWD tests by submitting tissue samples from poached wild deer

  • Tag swapping between breeder deer, and between breeder deer and replacement deer captured in the wild

"The hard work and commitment of our Texas Game Wardens to uncover these violations cannot be overstated," said TPWD Executive Director David Yoskowitz. "Their pivotal role in conservation law enforcement helps ensure the health of all deer populations in the state. These violations don’t just break the law—they undermine the very foundation of responsible wildlife management in Texas."