WINNIPEG -- Big-game hunters from Mexico legally shot three polar bears this week in Canada's Arctic, but were stopped when they tried to take the hides out of the country without the proper permits.
A Winnipeg judge blasted them with $80,000 in fines Friday just days after the hunting trip to Nunavut.
Acting on a tip, Environment Canada wildlife officers and Canada Border Services agents searched the men's private jet last Sunday as it was refuelling in Winnipeg.
They found three polar bear hides and narwhal tusks and the men did not have the proper export permits.
The four men pleaded guilty in provincial court Friday and paid their fines in cash.
Defence lawyer Evan Roitenberg, who represented three of the men -- a 67-year-old man and his two adult sons -- described his clients as "gentlemen of means" who had simply made a mistake by trusting an outfitter who promised to provide all necessary permits.
The four men came to Canada on March 15 from Monterey, Mexico, aboard a private jet, after paying $35,000 each to participate in an Arctic big-game hunt.
Polar bears are protected under national law and international treaty, so Canada's polar bears can only be harvested by Inuit hunters for subsistence, or by sport hunters guided by Inuit.
Hector Martinez, Sr., 67, is a property developer in Monterey where he also owns 26 ranches. Court was told that he is an enthusiastic hunter who travels the world in search of big game.
The group included Martinez's two sons, Hector Armando Martinez, 38, and Alejandro Martinez, 35 -- also from Monterey and who work for their father's property development firm -- and Martinez's godson, Gerardo Rodriguez, 41, described as a small businessman in Monterey who is also a silent partner in a restaurant in Vancouver.
Federal prosecutor Erin Magas told court that the polar bear hunt was legal. Local hunters in Nunavut are issued tags annually to allow them to hunt polar bears; they can use the tags to hunt or sell the tags to big-game hunters who travel to the north from all over the world.
However, a separate export permit is needed to take polar bear hides out of the country, which, Magas said, involved an international convention designed to monitor the polar bear population and determine how many should be culled every year.
Magas said even with proper export permits, the Mexican government does not allow the importation of mammals or mammal hides into its country, and the four men would not have been legally allowed to bring them into the country.
Magas said Martinez Sr. had a 1994 conviction in the U.S. for trying to smuggle live wild exotic animals into Mexico, including an African lion, three tigers, a bobcat, three black bears, two jaguars and a leopard. He pleaded guilty to that offence and was fined $10,000.
Roitenberg said that the senior Martinez is an advocate of animal and wildlife protection, adding that among his 26 ranches in Mexico, some were dedicated as game preserves.
The senior Martinez was given a $30,000 fine; Hector Armando Martinez was fined $10,000; Alejandro Martinez was fined $20,000; and Rodriguez was fined $20,000.
The court was told that the $80,000 in fines would be directed to the Environmental Defence Fund, which allocates money to environmental groups around the country.
