Border authorities said a routine stop quickly spiraled into one of the most bizarre wildlife smuggling cases in recent memory after a man insisted that a large bulge in his pants was simply part of his anatomy.
What officers discovered moments later set off a federal investigation and could leave him facing decades in prison.
According to federal prosecutors, 35-year-old Jesse Agus Martinez was taken into custody on October 23 after Customs and Border Protection agents at the Mexico United States border noticed an unusual bulge in the groin area of his trousers.
Martinez allegedly told agents that the swelling was just his genitalia. Officers continued their inspection and soon found two small brown bags tucked inside his underwear.
Inside those bags, investigators reported finding two orange-fronted parakeets.
Both birds were unconscious but still breathing, authorities said in a release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California.
Veterinarians later determined that the birds, which are considered critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, were alive but heavily sedated at the time they were discovered.
Court filings stated that Martinez admitted he hid the birds because he did not have the proper paperwork to bring them across the border.
He allegedly told agents that the animals were pets given to him by his uncle in Mexico and said he intended to “keep them in a shoe box in his van.”
Authorities said he claimed the sedation was meant to keep the birds calm during the trip.
On Friday, prosecutors announced that Martinez, who lives in Tijuana, had been indicted on a federal smuggling charge.
If convicted, officials said he could face a fine as high as $250,000 and up to twenty years in prison.
The parakeets were treated by veterinarians before being placed in quarantine. They are now described as stable.
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The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is currently investigating the case.
According to court documents, Martinez also acknowledged that he had attempted to bring a bird into the United States in September.
In that earlier incident, officers confiscated a parrot he was carrying under a towel. Records state that the bird was “subsequently euthanized.”
In another case involving wildlife trafficking, Thai authorities announced that two men were arrested over the weekend with 81 monkeys and a quantity of methamphetamine near the country’s border with Cambodia.
Rangers in the Sa Kaeo province pulled over a vehicle on Friday and found long tailed macaques crammed into blue net bags in the back of the car.
Officials said the suspects admitted they were part of an international trafficking operation that moves monkeys out of Thailand and into Cambodia.
In a statement posted to Facebook, the 12th Ranger Forces Regiment said officers seized both the animals and the drugs.
The suspects are now accused of possessing and trading protected wildlife without authorization, in addition to drug related offenses.
Police said the men told investigators they had been hired to transport the animals across the border.
Somruek Suppamitkrisana, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Division, said in a statement that the incident illustrates how the region remains a key target for smuggling networks.
“The border area remains a target for wildlife trafficking networks, especially for long-tailed macaques, which are in high demand internationally,” he said.
Authorities transferred the rescued monkeys to a wildlife center for treatment.
In Texas, officers confronted another disturbing case of animal cruelty that drew outrage across El Paso.
Prosecutors said 21-year-old Krystopher Nathan Torres pleaded guilty to stabbing a cat and consuming its internal organs in a restaurant parking lot in July 2024.
Investigators said police were dispatched on July 17 after a customer notified the manager of The Junction Brunch House that “a man was stabbing and eating a cat in the parking lot.”
Officers arriving at the scene found the cat’s intestines scattered across the pavement.
Further examination of the body revealed that its head was crushed and its torso torn open.
Employees gathered the remains of the animal into a plastic bag before disposing of it in a dumpster.
Torres was identified as the suspect after being involved in a car accident the following day.
He was taken into custody and held at the El Paso County Detention Facility on a $100,000 bond.
He was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty, though animal advocacy groups criticized the outcome.
Torres got a slap on the wrist with five years of probation, two hundred hours of community service and $300 in court costs.
“It’s disappointing that the disturbing nature of this case has not been taken seriously by the court,” said Doll Stanley, Senior Campaigner for In Defense of Animals.
The organization said it submitted a letter with 14,765 signatures requesting that Torres receive the maximum available penalties.
Advocates also urged officials to impose “mandated psychiatric counseling and a lifetime ban from being around animals.”
“Those who can harm animals so maliciously must be held accountable, and vulnerable community members must be protected from further harm they may cause,” Stanley said.
