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Tiger, tiger, feds indict

Rescued tiger cub gets new home at Colorado animal sanctuary

Duke, a male Bengal tiger cub found by police in an Albuquerque home in January 2023, is now residing at a Colorado animal sanctuary.

Courtesy of The Wild Animal Sanctuary

Olivier Uyttebrouck Olivier Uyttebrouck Olivier Uyttebrouck Staff Writer

Published January 12, 2024 - 2:15 p.m. Modified February 16, 2025 - 2:00 a.m.

Justice may be coming for "Duke," a Bengal tiger found a year ago after police followed a trail of blood to an Albuquerque mobile home.

Albuquerque police found the baby tiger, nicknamed Duke, in a dog crate while investigating an unrelated shooting on Jan. 10, 2023.

A federal indictment unsealed Friday alleges a 40-year-old Albuquerque man conspired to import Duke to New Mexico with plans to resell the animal.

According to the indictment, David "Cholo" Mendoza-Enriquez contacted a Mexican distributor of tigers and other exotic animals and arranged to import Duke to New Mexico.

A message Mendoza-Enriquez posted on social media also suggests that he imported at least two tigers for resale.

Mendoza-Enriquez allegedly kept Duke in various locations in Bernalillo County and sent messages via WhatsApp and Facebook to arrange a sale of the tiger, according to the indictment.

He sent a WhatsApp message in Spanish on Nov. 23, 2022, that said, "Right now, what I have for sale here are two tigers."

The grand jury indicted Mendoza-Enriquez for conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act, a federal law that prohibits the transport and sale of certain wildlife.

Mendoza-Enriquez is also one of 15 defendants charged with drug trafficking in a separate superseding indictment, according to a statement issued Friday by the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico Alexander Uballez.

On Jan. 10, 2023, Albuquerque police found the tiger in a dog crate after following a trail of blood from a shooting in Southeast Albuquerque that injured a man.

The tiger was found in a mobile home near Louisiana and Zuni SE. The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish took custody of the animal.

Duke was transferred first to the ABQ BioPark and later to the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, Colorado, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

According to the indictment, between Nov. 20, 2022, and Dec. 2, 2022, Mendoza-Enriquez conspired with others to transport Duke from Mexico to New Mexico.

He lacked the required wildlife importer license and failed to declare the action as required to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the indictment said.

The indictment sheds some light on mysterious reports of tigers in Albuquerque in 2022 and early 2023.

In August 2022, law enforcement officers investigating a report of a tiger instead found an alligator, along with a large cache of drugs and cash.

Officers with three agencies served a search warrant at a house in the 2500 block of Mountain NW "for the illegal possession of a tiger," according to court records.

Investigators failed to find a tiger but found a small alligator, 40 pounds of marijuana, 10 pounds of cocaine, two pounds of heroin and about $40,000 in cash at the home.

About two weeks later, police arrested the home's resident, Carlos Giddings, 27, on multiple counts of drug possession and trafficking charges.

Giddings pleaded guilty in May to a pair of felony drug trafficking charges. His sentence was deferred after he was transferred to a young adult diversion program, said Giddings attorney, Thomas Clear.

Clear said he is unaware that his client possessed a tiger.