Wildlife Sanctuary Founder Cleared in Major Lawsuit

Eduardo Mauricio Moisés Serio, president of the Black Jaguar-White Tiger Foundation, has been cleared of accusations for the crime against biodiversity and for organized crime in its modality of trafficking endangered species.

The Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Profepa) lost a lawsuit against Eduardo Mauricio Moisés Serio, president of the Black Jaguar-White Tiger Foundation, who was accused of crimes against biodiversity after abused and malnourished felines were found in a sanctuary located in the Ajusco.

The crimes against biodiversity were not attributed to nor proven against the businessman before a judge of the Federal Judicial Branch, despite the fact that 205 African and white lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, lynxes, pumas, primates, and coyotes were seized from him.

Profepa had previously won each of the injunctions and legal actions filed by Eduardo Mauricio Moisés Serio in the federal courts of administrative justice. But everything was different in the final hearing held at the end of October 2025, when the evidence presented by the Attorney General's Office of the Republic (FGR) was insufficient to link him to the process for the crimes against biodiversity.

The Federal Penal Code establishes that crimes against biodiversity occur when one traffics, captures, possesses, transports, or collects, as well as introduces or extracts from the country a species of terrestrial or aquatic wild flora or fauna under a ban, considered endemic, threatened, or endangered.

An administrative tribunal of the Federal Judicial Branch had imposed a fine of 20 million pesos on Papa Bear for the abuse of rescued animals in a sanctuary in the Ajusco.

The president of the Black Jaguar-White Tiger Foundation still faces a trial for organized crime in its modality of species trafficking in the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime (FEMDO).

Since February 17, 2023, there has been an arrest warrant against Eduardo Mauricio Moisés Serio, known as Papa Bear, for the abuse and trafficking of animals and endangered species. However, a series of injunctions and defense actions filed by his former defender, Salvador Padilla Estrada, succeeded in overturning the arrest warrant and creating a favorable legal scenario for his criminal defense.

The Attorney General's Office of the Republic was responsible for requesting the arrest warrant against Eduardo Mauricio Moisés Serio from a federal judge. He was reported by Christopher Estupiñán Martínez, legal representative of the Association of Zoos, Breeders and Aquariums of Mexico, as well as by Ricardo Sánchez Alamilla, general director of Federal Crimes against the Environment of Profepa.

It was Felipe de Jesús Delgadillo Padierna, District Judge Specialized in the Specialized Accusatory System of the Federal Criminal Justice Center in Mexico City, with headquarters in the Southern Prison, who issued the arrest warrant against Eduardo Mauricio Moisés Serio.

The Abuse and Trafficking in the Ajusco Sanctuary

"In March 2022, a former worker of the Great Mexican Sanctuary Black Jaguar White Tiger told us that in his former workplace, a large number of animals in danger of extinction were found in deplorable conditions and in a serious state of health, with exposed wounds and without any treatment to prevent or cure their injuries, not to mention that they were in a serious state of malnutrition," states the complaint filed with the FGR.

It adds that Eduardo Mauricio Moisés Serio declared in different media and social networks that through his foundation he managed to house up to 650 specimens of large felines.

"Likewise, and for the operation of the foundation, Eduardo Mauricio Serio obtained from the Tax Administration Service (SAT) the authorization to receive tax deductions," the document states.

According to the complaint, Papa Bear's foundation received millions of dollars from national donor organizations, as well as millions of dollars from the United States and other nations in Europe. This allowed it to have the necessary resources to fulfill the due care of the wildlife specimens under its charge, a legal obligation that corresponds to it by virtue of being a depository of specimens and the General Wildlife Law.

As a result of investigations carried out by activist Arturo Allende Borges, Jonice Yael Gutiérrez Ruiz, and the Association, it was confirmed that for several years the accused abandoned the specimens under his care.

"In addition to committing multiple acts of illegal commercialization of wildlife fauna species, which were the result of the reproduction of those same animals that were given to him on deposit from the year 2015 to the present, a fact that could constitute the illegal trafficking of species provided for in the Federal Penal Code."

The Black Jaguar-White Tiger Foundation did not have the necessary permits issued by the General Directorate of Wildlife of Semarnat to commercialize wildlife fauna specimens, much less the consent of the Profepa depositaries to dispose of the products of the seized specimens for sale, warns the criminal complaint filed with the FGR.

"Eduardo Mauricio Moisés Serio established a network for trafficking wildlife specimens, illegally profiting and benefiting from the sale of these animals; said sales were made to individuals, game ranches, and through intermediaries," states the complaint.

In 2015, the Black Jaguar-White Tiger Foundation obtained the registration issued by SEMARNAT SGPA/DGVS/03716/15 as a Property and Installation that Manages Wildlife in Confinement outside its Natural Habitat (PIMVS).

The sanctuary, which housed up to 300 felines including tigers, lynxes, jaguars, panthers, and lions of all ages, was established at kilometer 36 of the Picacho Ajusco Highway, Santo Tomás Ajusco, then the Tlalpan district.