Seventeen Men Charged In Florida Poaching Investigation
An 18-month investigation into deer and alligator poaching in Florida's Brevard and Volusia counties concluded last Thursday with the arrest of 10 men and charges against seven others.
An undercover officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission had infiltrated a group of men who were hunting out of season and at night, according to Major Andy Love, who supervises law enforcement for the commission in Central Florida. During his yearlong investigation, the officer documented 456 violations, Love said. The group illegally killed 20 deer and numerous alligators, he added.
The undercover operation ended abruptly during the spring, he said, when the group's suspected ringleader was shot and killed in an unrelated incident at a Brevard County, Florida, campground.
Last Thursday morning, commission officers arrested 10 people in Brevard, Orange and Indian River counties on a variety of felony and misdemeanor charges, including 86 felony counts of armed trespassing. Most of the poaching was done on property owned by the St. Johns River Water Management District between Florida's Volusia and Brevard counties.
Felony trespassing convictions carry charges of up to $5,000 and 5 years in jail. The misdemeanor charges in this case could be $1,000 and up to 1 year in jail.
In related news, the Arizona Game and Fish Department is offering up to a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for the poaching of two elk in a portion of Unit 7M southwest of Flagstaff, Arizona, on December 3.
Arizona Game and Fish Department Officials say the elk were killed in Hunt Unit 7M along U.S. Forest Service road 231, also known as the Woody Mountain Road, near Woody Mountain and adjacent to Hunt Unit 6B. The location is approximately 1 mile east of Rogers Lake and 2 miles west of the Flagstaff Arboretum.
Anyone with information about the poachings is encouraged to call the Arizona Game and Fish Department's Operation Game Thief Hotline at (800) 352-0700
An 18-month investigation into deer and alligator poaching in Florida's Brevard and Volusia counties concluded last Thursday with the arrest of 10 men and charges against seven others.
An undercover officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission had infiltrated a group of men who were hunting out of season and at night, according to Major Andy Love, who supervises law enforcement for the commission in Central Florida. During his yearlong investigation, the officer documented 456 violations, Love said. The group illegally killed 20 deer and numerous alligators, he added.
The undercover operation ended abruptly during the spring, he said, when the group's suspected ringleader was shot and killed in an unrelated incident at a Brevard County, Florida, campground.
Last Thursday morning, commission officers arrested 10 people in Brevard, Orange and Indian River counties on a variety of felony and misdemeanor charges, including 86 felony counts of armed trespassing. Most of the poaching was done on property owned by the St. Johns River Water Management District between Florida's Volusia and Brevard counties.
Felony trespassing convictions carry charges of up to $5,000 and 5 years in jail. The misdemeanor charges in this case could be $1,000 and up to 1 year in jail.
In related news, the Arizona Game and Fish Department is offering up to a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for the poaching of two elk in a portion of Unit 7M southwest of Flagstaff, Arizona, on December 3.
Arizona Game and Fish Department Officials say the elk were killed in Hunt Unit 7M along U.S. Forest Service road 231, also known as the Woody Mountain Road, near Woody Mountain and adjacent to Hunt Unit 6B. The location is approximately 1 mile east of Rogers Lake and 2 miles west of the Flagstaff Arboretum.
Anyone with information about the poachings is encouraged to call the Arizona Game and Fish Department's Operation Game Thief Hotline at (800) 352-0700
