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ABALONE SELLER PLEADS GUILTY
Published on August 30, 2002
© 2002- The
Press Democrat
BYLINE: Steve Hart
PAGE: B3
COLUMN: Around the Empire
A 47-year-old Oakland man has pleaded guilty to charges of
conspiracy in an alleged plot to sell abalone taken
from the Sonoma Coast.
Duong A. Luu faces up to three years in prison. He will
be sentenced Oct. 2 in Sonoma County Superior Court.
Two other men are on trial in the same case in the
courtroom of Judge Elaine Watters. Kin Wah Gee and Kim Keung
Gee, also of Oakland, pleaded innocent to the charges.
Deputy District Attorney Brooke Halsey Jr. said Luu was
a ringleader of the group and has two prior convictions for
misdemeanor violations of the state's fish and game laws.
Luu's attorney, Martin Woods, denied he was a leader of the
alleged plot.
According to investigators, the men told undercover
wardens they had a network of divers who could deliver up to
200 pounds of abalone a week. They were selling
abalone on the black market for up to $85 each,
investigators said.
Last year, two other men, Sau Van Pham and Chinpin Ou,
both of San Francisco, pleaded guilty to lesser charges in the
case.
-- Steve Hart Keywords: FISHING LAW CRIME
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