Career
From April 1989 until early 1992, he was curator of birds at Loro Parque, Tenerife, Canary Islands, the largest parrot park in the world. He was involved in the early efforts to save the Spix"s macaw. In January 1992, in the culmination of "Operation Renegade," an international probe into bird smuggling conducted by the United States. Fish and Wildlife Service"s Division of Law Enforcement from 1989-1992, federal agents raided Silva"s Chicago home, seizing a collection of rare and endangered birds held there in a basement aviary.
In December, 1994, he and others were arrested and indicted for conspiracy to violate wildlife and customs laws, and tax evasion (see case Number 94-Czech Republic-760).
In 1996, Silva pled guilty, was convicted and sentenced to 82 months in prison, fined $100,000 and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service during a three-year probationary term after his prison sentence. The smuggling between 1985 and 1992 involved numerous threatened species of South American and Southeast Asian parrots, including hyacinth macaws and other macaws, vinaceous amazons and other amazons, conures, lorikeets and other parrots, cockatoos and flamingos.
A Monograph Of Macaws and, (1986).,,, (1994).