Smuggling
In Jan. 1992, in the culmination of "Operation Renegade," an international probe into bird smuggling conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Division of Law Enforcement from 1989-92, federal agents raided Silva's Chicago home, seizing a collection of rare and endangered birds held there in a basement aviary. In December, 1994, he and others were arrested and indicted for conspiracy to violate wildlife and customs laws, and tax evasion (see case No. 94-CR-760). In 1996, Silva pled guilty, was convicted and sentenced to 82 months in prison, fined $100,000 and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service during a three-year probationary term after his prison sentence. The smuggling between 1985 and 1992 involved several threatened species of South American parrots, including Hyacinth Macaws and Vinaceous Amazons.
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