On January 4 law enforcement announced that a cattle theft suspect has finally been arrested and is now awaiting a hearing in Tulare County.
Sheriff Mike Boudreaux reported that 36-year-old Justin Tyler Greer of Exeter has been arrested, having been accused of stealing hundreds of head of cattle. “This case can only be described as a 21st century, modern-day cattle rustling case,” said Boudreaux.
There have been seven victims spanning California, Colorado, and Wyoming, with losses totally $1.5 million. So far, 900 head of cattle has been recovered. “We believe, through our investigation, the potential of thousands of head of cattle have still yet to be located,” Boudreaux noted.
Officials are continuing to work on recovering the remaining heads of cattle that are still missing. Sergeant Raider of the Agricultural Crimes Unit, who helped lead the investigation said, “it’s no longer the time when you can just go get someone’s cattle back out of a field, you know, you have to pour through thousands of pages of digital evidence.”
The fugitive task force apprehended Greer in Texas on December 27. For many years, Greer was widely known in the Tulare County area as a respected cattleman who bought and sold cattle as a broker and also managed various herds of cattle. Greer is now facing 13 grand theft, embezzlement and fraud charges related to the cattle theft. His bail is set at close to two million dollars. A hearing on this case is scheduled for the morning of January 5.
“I want to reinforce to our agricultural partners in the communities of Tulare County that we will dedicate and put no limits on the resources of investigating agricultural crimes to our agricultural partners here in Tulare County,” said Boudreaux.