Man arrested after trying to sell tiger cub sentenced to 2 years probation

A man arrested earlier this year after trying to sell a tiger cub to an undercover Phoenix police officer will not be going to prison. Instead, Carlos Eduardo Castro-Alcaraz, 25, was sentenced to two years of supervised probation on Thursday morning.

Back in January, officers learned that he was trying to find interested buyers for a tiger cub on social media. After learning about the alleged plot by Castro-Alcaraz, officers then engaged with his social media profile and posed as a potential buyer.

He was selling the cub for $25,000, but undercover officers made a deal to buy the cub at a reduced price of $20,000 dollars. Officers arrested Castro-Alcaraz at his home near 27th Avenue and Baseline Road.

But the cub was not the only animal seized by authorities. An alligator and a dozen snapping turtles were seized and turned over to the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

The animals temporarily stayed at the Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center in Scottsdale, the tiger cub, now named Indy, has been transferred to a permanent home at the Wildcat Sanctuary in Sandstone, Minnesota.

Apart from the two years of probation that Castro-Alcaraz was given on Thursday, he is also forbidden from owning exotic animals while on probation and has been ordered to pay $6,000 dollars in restitution.

He was also ordered to forfeit interest in the tiger, alligator and 12 snapping turtles that were taken away back in January.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Man arrested in tiger cub sale given 2 years of probation