Hunters' brags bring down poaching ring
Unfair game: A Montana man has admitted running illegal hunts for deer, elk and other animals on his land north of Yellowstone
By Scott Mcmillion
The Associated Press


BOZEMAN, Mont. - It started on an airplane.
Four men from Tennessee flying into Bozeman were talking with a Gallatin County man who was flying home, and telling him they were planning to hunt bull elk in the Gardiner area.
But there was a problem. The conversation took place in January 2004 and the general hunting season had been closed for weeks. The local guy knew that drawing a late-season bull tag took incredible luck.
The Tennesseans told him they didn't need luck. They had ''ranch tags.''
There's no such thing as a ranch tag in Montana, and the local man knew it. When the plane landed, he picked up a phone and called wardens at the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
That call ignited an investigation that has consumed at least a thousand man-hours of investigative time. It has sent wardens to Tennessee, Michigan and California.
Late last month, John Daniel ''Danny'' McDonald pleaded guilty in an ongoing commercial poaching operation. A plea agreement with federal prosecutors, which has yet to be approved by the judge, calls for him to serve a year in prison, pay a $25,000 fine and give up hunting and gun ownership for the rest of his life.
McDonald lives in Cinnabar Basin, an incredibly beautiful bowl in the mountains just north of Yellowstone National Park. The area is filled with all kinds of wildlife. McDonald owns about 1,100 acres there, part of an ancestral ranch, and had outfitted on the property for years. For some of his clients, licenses and seasons were ignored.
Five of McDonald's clients have pleaded guilty to poaching charges and paid thousands of dollars in fines. Wardens say their work isn't done.
''More charges and federal indictments will be coming,'' said state game warden Capt. Sam Sheppard.
The call from the anonymous informant got immediate attention at FWP headquarters in Bozeman.
Wardens in the Gardiner area had been suspicious about McDonald's operation for some time, Sheppard said. From the informant, they figured out roughly how long the Tennesseans planned to stay, and the wardens planned a stakeout.
''We sat on the airport, all the flights going out, for three days,'' Sheppard said.
Then they found their prey. McDonald drove his clients to the airport, and after he left, wardens, Gallatin County sheriff's deputies and airport security pulled them into a room. Three of them admitted to killing elk, and wardens found elk teeth and digital cameras with photographic evidence. Each of them posted bonds of $1,000 before they could get on a plane.
McDonald was pulled over on his way home, arrested, questioned and released.
Then wardens came to his house with a search warrant and seized documents, computer records and more photographs. They compared calendars with pictures, and started putting names to faces. They figured out that the Tennessee men weren't the first illegal out-of-state hunters who paid McDonald to poach on his place.
''We decided to go federal from there,'' Sheppard said.
Crossing state lines to hunt illegally is a federal offense. It can mean jail time, major fines, loss of some rights, a lifelong stigma.
''Federal indictments get people's attention,'' Sheppard said.
More search warrants were executed in Michigan and California, and more
evidence was seized.
So far, wardens have collected 14 bull elk heads or racks, one deer and one mountain lion. They say they expect to collect a lot more.
McDonald, 38, is a father of three. He runs a tourism business on his property, at the end of the road in an isolated area. He offers log cabin rentals and a variety of recreation, like horseback rides and target shooting.
His Web site offers all kinds of pictures of people posing with dead elk, bison, moose and deer, but no further information.
McDonald is out of the hunting business now.
''You're done with hunting,'' U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull told him after he pleaded guilty to two federal Lacey Act violations.
Cebull stressed during McDonald's court appearance that he doesn't have to comply with the plea agreement when he sentences McDonald in January. And the length of the sentence could depend on McDonald's cooperation between now and then.
Maximum criminal penalties under the Lacey Act are five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each felony violation.
''To be honest with you, there are things that are more important to him'' than hunting, said McDonald's attorney, Chuck Watson. ''Nobody with a happy family wants to go to jail. But he realizes the gravity of what he did. He's going to step up to the plate and take responsibility for what he did.''
The three Tennessee hunters who killed elk - Oddie Graves, David Hughes and Mark Calvetti of the Nashville area - were ordered to pay fines and restitution totaling $13,210.
The fourth man in that group, Joe Link, didn't kill an elk, but was the organizer of the party, Sheppard said. He paid $1,070 in fines and lost his hunting privileges for five years.
Despite their conversation in the airplane, the men had been told not to wear hunting clothes on the trip, not to discuss hunting, and to bring no guns. McDonald provided the weapons, Sheppard said, and was arranging to have their illegal trophies shipped home.
A Grand Rapids, Mich., man, Roger Driesenga, paid $2,500 in fines and restitution for hunting on McDonald's ranch after the season closed in 2002. He didn't even kill an elk. Rather, McDonald killed one for him, then gave him a shed antler so Driesenga could build a mount, spelling out the lengths to which some people will go to put a trophy on the wall.
''There are some people out there who really go nuts about it,'' Watson said.
Two California men are accused of poaching a deer in December 2002 and three elk in February 2003, according to the U.S. attorney's office. They'll also be facing federal charges, Sheppard said.
And other charges are pending, he warned.

Good post...

And long time no see/read Kathi

I have missed your posts...



Martin

Outstanding! Made my day.

quote:

Despite their conversation in the airplane, the men had been told not to wear hunting clothes on the trip, not to discuss hunting, and to bring no guns.

Hmmm...I wonder why this request didn't ring alarm bells? The hunters maybe should have been slapped even harder. It takes two to tango.

The point of it was that they were warned to not discuss hunting, or look like they were going when en route so as to not raise suspicions. They knew exactly what they were doing. Now everyone pays the piper, which is only fair and proper. Pretty amazing how low people will sink.

i'm glad they caught these "scum".

I like hearing good news! Nate

The old saying there is only one way 2 or more people can keep a secret And that is if all but one of them is dead.

Doing this so offten with so many people one has to know it well get out.

Given that these thugs were after "trophies" to hang on their dens' walls, they'd have to also employ a taxidermist. I don't know of a taxidermist around these parts who'll accept a game head or horns, without the proper tags attached. Therefore, whomever the taxidermist these thugs used, I'd think, would also be implicated for accepting illegal heads. (????)

As for people who poach, they are nothing more than regular criminals who steal from all of us who obey the hunting laws and regulations.

A very large poaching ring has just been broken up here in Idaho, with the investigations ongoing. Both residents and non-residents are involved.

I hope they throw them UNDER the jail!

FWIW. L.W.