Black Market Animal Rings Cracked
Authorities said Wednesday that they have cracked a number of multi- state black market operations that dealt in illegally taken game fish, birds and animals and have issued arrest warrants or criminal citations against 135 persons.
The 28-month undercover investigation was one of the most extensive of its kind, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said, and reached into Pennsylvania, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Virginia.
Federal and state agents posed as dealers and infiltrated several black market operations, officials said. They either bought or found evidence of purchases of 275 deer, 10,000 pounds of striped bass and other game fish and hundreds of ducks, geese, small game species, fur-bearing mammals, songbirds and at least one stuffed eagle.
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