10 indicted for poaching, sale of walleye
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Ten men have been indicted in federal court for allegedly poaching walleye from the Red Lake and Leech Lake Indian reservations and then selling fish illegally on the black market.
The charges outlined in four separate indictments date back to July of 2009. The charges claim that some of the men took fish from Red Lake and sold them illegally to a bar owner in Bagley.
Other defendants are accused of illegally using nets to catch fish on several lakes on the Leech Lake Reservation. The indictments claim the men then sold the fish for commercial purposes, including sales of fish to a restaurant owner in Bena.
The business owners in Bagley and Bena are among those facing indictments.
Authorities estimated the market value of the fish in all of the cases to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
If convicted, each of the men could face a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
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