Alligator trapper accused of illegal harvesting after carcasses found at his SC home
A man licensed in South Carolina to remove “nuisance alligators” was caught with their carcasses at his home in Chesterfield County, according to state officials.
Now he faces charges of illegal harvesting.
Julius Raymond Loflin Jr. was arrested Thursday after law enforcement executed a search warrant at his home in Cheraw and found “untagged carcasses and alligator parts,” the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources said in a news release Friday. Cheraw is about two hours northeast of Columbia, just shy of the North Carolina border.
Harvesting refers to trapping or killing animals to control population numbers.
Loflin is a state-contracted alligator trapper, meaning he has permits from the S.C. DNR’s Wildlife & Freshwater Fisheries Division that allow him to legally trap alligators. But officials said evidence found at his home indicates Loflin wasn’t “utilizing permits issued to him appropriately.”
The S.C. DNR immediately revoked his trapping permit but has not yet charged him with any wildlife violations.
“Once review of all the evidence is complete, SCDNR officials anticipate that charges related to the illegal take of American alligators, as well as other potential charges, will be forthcoming,” officials said in the release.
According to the agency’s Wildlife Control Operators list, Loflin works for Dreamscape Outdoors Animal Control in Chesterfield County.
In addition to alligators, Loflin appears to be permitted in the removal of beavers, bobcats, coyotes, foxes, hogs, minks, muskrats, opossums, otters, pigeons, rabbits, raccoons, skunks, snakes, squirrel and woodpeckers
He was also part of a team of “animal control specialists” who assisted wrestling a 10-foot, 400-pound alligator at Lake Paul Wallace in Bennettsville to shore in 2017, WPDE previously reported.
“Once you get, snags him, you can get him up to the bank and close enough where you can get a kill shot in him,” Loflin told the TV station at the time. “He was shot twice.”
WPDE described Loflin as “a nuisance wildlife control operator for the State of South Carolina.”
The Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday’s search warrant was the result of a year-long investigation with the Department of Natural Resources, during which time law enforcement reportedly received tips that Loflin was “posing as a DNR officer” and “had alligators buried on his property that were untagged.”
In addition to the alligator parts, the sheriff’s office said stolen property and drugs were found in his house.
Loflin is currently being held at the Chesterfield County Detention Center. The sheriff’s office asked that anyone who has come in contact with him get in touch with the Department of Natural Resources at 1-800-922-5431 or the Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Office at 1-843-623-2101.
