Southern Illinois Judge Orders Out-of-State Men to Pay $120,000 for Multi-Year Deer Poaching Scheme

Southern Illinois Judge Orders Out-of-State Men to Pay $120,000 for Multi-Year Deer Poaching Scheme

iStock Illinois – In a major win for conservation enforcement and ethical hunters everywhere, a federal judge in southern Illinois has ordered five Mississippi men to pay nearly $120,000 in fines and restitution after they admitted to illegally poaching trophy whitetail deer across five Illinois counties. Between 2018 and 2022, the men ran what authorities described as a calculated and organized poaching operation. Using spotlights under the cov…

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

Five Mississippi men have been sentenced in federal court for their roles in a long-running poaching and wildlife trafficking operation that targeted trophy-class whitetails in Southern Illinois.  The case was filed in 2023 and has finally been resolved, according to a recent press release by the Department of Justice. Court documents obtained by OL show that between 2018 to 2022 the “poachers would use spotlights to scout white-tailed deer in M…