5 Men Were Busted for a Trophy-Buck Poaching Ring. They Killed 60-Plus Deer

5 Mississippi males have been sentenced in federal court docket for his or her roles in a long-running poaching and wildlife trafficking operation that focused trophy-class whitetails in Southern Illinois. 

The case was filed in 2023 and has lastly been resolved, in keeping with a recent press release by the Division of Justice. Courtroom paperwork obtained by OL present that between 2018 to 2022 the “poachers would use spotlights to scout white-tailed deer in Massac, Jefferson, Union, Pope and Clark counties in southern Illinois. As soon as a deer was situated, members of the group would get a rifle, highlight the deer once more, after which shoot to kill. They might later return to gather the carcass.”

The boys transported deer throughout state strains to Mississippi, the place they might course of the deer and mount them. An indictment filed in federal court docket in September 2023 detailed a number of journeys to Missouri the place the boys rented motels and cabins in Illinois to scout and poach deer in Massac, Jefferson, Union, Pope, and Clark counties. 

Whereas court docket information observe violations beginning in 2018, one of many Illinois Conservation Law enforcement officials who labored the case says that this poaching ring had been working within the space for roughly 20 years.

“Truthfully, we actually really feel we solely received possibly 1 / 4 of what they’ve completed,” says Conservation Police sergeant Heath Tepovich, who confirmed that the boys had been answerable for poaching roughly 60 deer — that officers learn about. “We discovered that the principle man [Lee Johnson] had been doing it for about 20 years.”

The restitution and costs for all 5 males totaled not fairly $120,000. Fifty-four-year-old ringleader Lee Jay Johnson of Saucier, Mississippi, was ordered to pay the majority of that: $75,000 in restitution charges and $10,000 in fines for Lacey Act violations. Whereas all 5 males had been additionally sentenced to 5 years of probation, all of them additionally averted jail time. The opposite defendants sentenced on this case are Steven J. Pique, 56, of Biloxi; Gerald B. Moran, 40, of Saucier; Joshua A. Marshall, 30; and John M. Pritchard, 57, of Biloxi.

“It’s onerous to catch these folks and once you do, you’ve received to set an instance. And I feel we did that,” says Tepovich. “I’m glad we’ve stopped them. I feel we hopefully have corrected some conduct and possibly stopped others from doing the identical. However you by no means know. It’s been my expertise that [once convicted] folks like that cease for just a little bit. However then, in addition they can not cease.”

Tepovich says that whereas a number of of the seized deer had been returned to defendants as part of agreements with their legal professionals, nearly all of the taxidermy stays in USFWS custody. The mounts and antlers will ultimately be returned to the Illinois DNR. The fines go to the Lacey Act Reward Account and restitution charges are turned over to the Illinois Division of Pure Sources. Like many states, Illinois units trophy poaching fines primarily based on the size of a deer’s antlers; any 8- to 10-point buck incurs a high quality of $1,000 plus $500 per antler level; any buck with 11 factors or extra incurs a high quality of $1,000 plus $750 per antler.

“This was not an remoted incident of illegal looking,” USFWS Workplace of Legislation enforcement assistant director Douglas Ault stated in an announcement. “It was a calculated, multi-year operation that exploited Illinois’s prized wildlife assets for private achieve … Such organized violations undermine a long time of conservation progress and diminish the integrity of fair-chase looking traditions that accountable hunters worth nationwide.”

Learn Subsequent: Every Hunter Should Know What the Lacey Act Is, How It Works, and Why It’s On the Books

Poaching violations are notoriously onerous to doc and show, and a litany of violations typically can’t be confirmed or prosecuted in court docket. Tepovich says it’s vital for the general public to remain alert and report any suspected poaching conduct to native regulation enforcement.

“The largest false impression of poaching is that individuals are doing it for meals. And, you already know, more often than not they’re simply out for the trophy and the kill,” says Tepovich. “[Johnson] was paying folks to go get the deer, and he would pay some [locals] to go scout deer as nicely, previous to him developing [to Illinois]. It was a conspiracy. They got down to kill trophy deer. That was their huge factor.”