Wardens reel in poaching suspects

Seven Sacramento-area men were jailed Friday for allegedly poaching sturgeon in Colusa County.

Those arrested used juvenile salmon as bait for sturgeon and sold the illegal catches for profit, the state Department of Fish and Game said in a prepared statement. Most of the fish were taken from the Sacramento River in Colusa County, according to the department.

Search and arrest warrants were served on Ivan Banatskyi, Sergey Sokalskiy, Andrey Bukaty, Petr Ivanovich Kolosov, Yevgeniy Leontyuk, Alexandr Paripa and Serhiy V. Omelchuck. Their cities of residence were listed as Citrus Heights, Sacramento and Rancho Cordova.

Paripa and Kolosov were booked into Sacramento County Jail. The other five suspects were jailed in Colusa.

Leontyuk and Omelchuk were still in custody Friday night pending $15,000 bail each. Banatskyi, Sokalshiy and Bukaty each posted a $15,000 bail bond and were released. All three are set to appear in Colusa Superior Court on May 26, a jail spokeswoman confirmed.

Banatskyi is considered the ringleader, according to Fish and Game Lt. John Laughlin. He said wardens found evidence that Banatskyi contributed to at least 18 illegal fish kills since October.

Laughlin said the group had been under 24-hour surveillance since March 10 in what DFG dubbed "Operation Colusa Clan." Wardens observed a pattern of night fishing, where the men would fish in groups of three to five, consistently catching more than the legal limit.

The fish were sold illegally in Sacramento County, Laughlin said. "Sturgeon are on the verge of being listed as a protected species by the federal government," Laughlin said. "The commercialization of wildlife could lead to the end of sturgeon in my lifetime, unless people like this are stopped."

Sturgeon eggs fetch high prices on the black market as caviar. The delicacy is popular among immigrants from Eastern Europe, Sean Pirtle, a Fish and Game warden said.

Laughlin said sturgeon sell somewhere between $2,000 to $4,000 per fish. Females are more valuable depending on the amount of eggs they can carry. Laughlin said black market caviar is exported worldwide at prices ranging from $150 to $200 per jar.

Fish and Game wardens searched 15 separate locations in Sacramento County at 7 a.m. Friday, said Dave Markss, chief investigator with the Colusa County District Attorney's Office.

Laughlin said wardens also seized three sport utility vehicles, two small fishing boats and a Russian-made assault rifle equipped with a night-vision scope, which Laughlin described as "an AK-47 knockoff," all from different locations in Sacramento County.

In addition, wardens seized dozens of fishing rods, nets and a large amount of fish meat and quantities of processed fish eggs in jars and coolers.

Charges on the arrest warrants range from conspiracy to commercially selling recreationally caught fish, illegal use of salmon as bait, unlawful possession of illegally caught fish and several other poaching-related charges, the DFG said.

Contact Rob Parsons at 934-6800 or rparsons@tcnpress.com.