GALT, CA (MPG) - A Galt man who smuggled the trophy of an endangered wild sheep into the United States after a big-game hunt in Pakistan has been sentenced to six months in federal prison and ordered to pay $85,000 in fines.

According to a news release issued Jan. 7 by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California, 51-year-old Jason Keith Bruce of Galt admitted to conspiring to smuggle a Ladakh urial trophy into the country nearly eight years ago.

The Ladakh urial is an endangered species of wild sheep native to the mountainous Ladakh region of India and Pakistan. A “Trophy,” as defined by authorities, is “a whole animal, or a readily recognizable part of an animal, that is prepared for display.”

Federal prosecutors said Bruce, a recreational big-game hunter, was a client of 45-year-old Pir Danish Ali, his co-defendant and the chief executive officer of a Pakistan-based hunting outfitter and guide company. An investigation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) found that beginning in 2016 the two conspired to hunt a Ladakh urial and illegally import the resulting trophy into the United States.

The release said Bruce paid Ali $50,000 for the hunting trip during which he killed a Ladakh urial, then initially returned to the United States without the animal trophy. He later traveled back to Pakistan and, on March 29, 2018, arrived at San Francisco International Airport carrying eight animal trophies in his personal luggage, including the Ladakh urial.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers alerted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which detained the trophy. Prosecutors said Bruce and Ali then agreed to lie to the agency, claiming the animal was a different sheep species that is not endangered.

Authorities later determined the case was part of a broader pattern of fraud tied to Ali’s hunting company. Investigators found forged documents were used to import at least 97 animal trophies into the United States between 2013 and 2018.

Bruce was arrested and indicted in 2023 on charges including conspiracy to violate the Endangered Species Act, making false statements and smuggling goods into the United States.

The Sacramento Bee reported that Bruce pleaded guilty Tuesday, Feb. 3 to one count of conspiracy. In the plea agreement cited by the Bee, Bruce acknowledged that he “worked with a hunting company in Pakistan to kill the Ladakh urial and bring it home, where he had it mounted in a trophy room at his home.”

The Bee also reported that Bruce was sentenced to six months in federal prison, ordered to pay $85,000 in fines and given two years of supervised release after completing his prison term.