A Texas Game Warden investigation into a black-market deer breeding and wildlife trade has resulted in more than 1,200 pending charges against 22 suspects.
In a press release on Thursday, Feb. 27 , the Texas Game Warden revealed that the cases stem from a prior investigation involving the illegal smuggling of captive white-tailed deer , ultimately leading wardens to uncover this much larger network of alleged offenders after the arrest and conviction of two individuals in Montgomery County.
The suspects and charges are associated with three deer breeding facilities, 10 release sites, one deer management pen, and three illegal facilities that were not registered in the Texas Wildlife Information Management System (TWIMS) database, meaning they were operating or receiving deer in violation of registration requirements and disease monitoring protocols…