An Argentinian park ranger and lawyer, Emiliano Villegas, has been awarded the prestigious international Clark R. Bavin award, becoming the first Argentinian to receive this distinction. The recognition is due to his fundamental role in coordinating the investigation that dismantled a vast illegal hunting circuit and wildlife trafficking, considered the largest discovered in recent Argentinian history.
The investigation, which Villegas coordinated as part of the Environmental Control Brigade of the National Environment Subsecretariat, yielded strong results: 14 simultaneous raids were conducted, nearly 8,000 animal trophies (taxidermies) were seized, and seven individuals were prosecuted by the justice system.
One of the main accused, Jorge Noya, owner of the company “Caza & Safaris Argentina“, is currently under house arrest.
The illegal hunting circuit case, which began in 2018 with raids on hunting reserves in Santiago del Estero and Buenos Aires, was temporarily shelved during the pandemic.
However, in 2023, a complaint from the NGO Freeland Brazil about the hunting of jaguars (a protected species) reactivated the process. The federal prosecutor’s office in Lomas de Zamora, under the direction of Sergio Mola, expanded the case to “criminal association”, a legal figure that allowed the use of wiretapping and deeper surveillance.
In early 2024, the NGO Red Yaguareté provided photographic evidence of a trophy room with taxidermized protected species. The analysis of the company’s social networks revealed that they openly offered the hunting of 17 species, many of them prohibited.
During the procedures on August 5, 2024, not only were trophies of exotic species like elephants found without the corresponding origin documentation, but also evidence of “canned hunting“: a peccary and a puma were found alive and caged, ready to be hunted in conditions of defenselessness.
The network operated at an international level, with a circuit that included Paraguay, Brazil, and Bolivia, attracting high purchasing power clients from Spain and the United States.
The investigation of the illegal hunting circuit also clarified an event that occurred in Mendoza in February 2021. On that occasion, the National Gendarmerie seized 55 taxidermized animals in Uspallata, including Bengal tigers, brown bears, and an African lion. Thanks to the reactivation of the main case, it was determined that these taxidermies came from the workshop of one of the seven accused in the Noya network.
Emiliano Villegas, 44, will receive the Clark R. Bavin award on December 5 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, during the CITES COP 20. Villegas highlighted that the award, given every three years since 1994, is an honor he shares with the joint task force, including the Argentinian Federal Police, his brigade colleagues, and collaborating NGOs.
