Two brothers from Sulphur, Louisiana, were sentenced Friday to federal prison for illegally trafficking alligator snapping turtles from the Toledo Bend and Sam Rayburn lakes in east Texas.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Texas announced the punishments during a press conference in downtown Beaumont.
Travis Leger was sentenced to 21 months in prison. His half-brother, Jason Leckelt, was sentenced to 16 months in prison.
A third defendant in the case, Rickey Simon, also of Sulphur, was sentenced to three years of probation. U.S. District Court Judge Marcia A. Crone ordered the sentences.
Federal prosecutors and detectives say this is the result of a four-year investigation into the violation of both state and federal law.
Alligator snapping turtles are among the largest freshwater turtles in the world, can grow to weigh more than 200 pounds, and live more than 100 years.
The turtles are designated as threatened with statewide extinction under Texas law, which “strictly prohibits anyone from taking, capturing, transporting, or selling” the turtles.
Edward Grace, acting chief of law enforcement for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, says “the illegal trafficking of wildlife undermines the vital conservation work being done to protect imperiled species.”
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