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STEALTHY STING NETS POACHING
SUSPECTS
Published on October 30, 1998
© 1998- The
Press Democrat
BYLINE: Clark Mason
Staff
Writer
PAGE: B1
Undercover state Fish and Game wardens spent weeks
shadowing suspected abalone poachers as part of an
elaborate sting but moved in early on the suspects fearing
that unlawful night dives on the North Coast were ravaging the
abalone population.
The sting put two of the three Santa Rosa suspects in
court Thursday facing felony charges of conspiracy to violate
Fish and Game laws in what is a continuing problem off the
Sonoma Coast.
Fish and Game officials announced Thursday the formation of
a Recreational Abalone Advisory Committee designed to
try to restore abalone along the California coast.
Earlier this month, a half-dozen members of a special
operations unit of Fish and Game participated in the sting,
which involved watching suspects with special night-vision
binoculars as they dove for abalone off Reef
Campground, south of Fort Ross on the Sonoma Coast.
The undercover wardens, part of a unit formed to stop
the illegal commercialization of abalone and wildlife,
set up several ``buys'' of abalone in Santa Rosa that
were videotaped, as well as recorded with a body wire strapped
to an informant.
Fish and Game enlisted an undercover police officer
from a Bay Area department to gain the confidence of the
suspects. Fish and Game moved in Oct. 15, the second night
wardens observed two men scuba diving for abalone, but
before authorities could find who their customers would be.
``They could have really taken out the resource, so we
put a stop to it,'' said Warden Steven Riske. ``We didn't find
out who they were selling to. We had information the
abalone was going to San Francisco and Oakland, but we
didn't make that connection.''
Taking abalone at night on the North Coast is
prohibited and only snorkel gear is allowed for divers in the
highly regulated sport. Scuba gear enables a diver to take the
tasty mollusks from their deeper havens.
A ban on sport and commercial abalone harvesting
south of San Francisco that went into effect last year has put
increasing pressure on the North Coast, the last place in the
United States that has any sizeable abalone resource.
Authorities say the poaching operation was not as big
as a couple others in recent years in terms of the numbers of
abalone seized. But Sonoma County prosecutor Brooke
Halsey Jr. said it was a sophisticated operation and brought
the arrest of Van Ky Do, on probation for a previous
misdemeanor abalone-related conviction in 1995 in which
23 people were arrested for harvesting abalone at
night.
In this case, investigators said they conducted buys on
three separate occasions in Santa Rosa with the number of
abalone growing from three to 35 and the price ranging
from $30 to $40 a shellfish.
Do also was cited in Mendocino County for violating
abalone restrictions but forfeited his bail and paid a
fine, Riske said.
This time, prosecutors are charging Do with a felony
conspiracy to violate Fish and Game laws by selling
abalone under the authority of a sport fishing license,
taking abalone for commercial purposes in a closed area
and taking abalone with scuba gear.
The other two defendants facing similar charges are
Do's wife, Doan Thi Nguyen, and Nam Ngo.
According to Fish and Game investigators, Nguyen said
she had as many as 10 divers that could provide abalone
for her to sell.
Nguyen and Ngo appeared in court Thursday but their
arraignment was postponed until Nov. 6 when a Vietnamese
interpreter can be present for Nguyen.
Do was not in court. His attorney told the judge that
Do thought it was a misdemeanor that did not require his
presence.
Ngo, who speaks English, declined to talk about the
case. ``I can't tell you anything that can be used against me
in a court of law.''
The new state committee is designed to be a vital
private/public partnership to rebuild depleted abalone
populations in Central and Southern California while
``maintaining and enhancing the healthy North Coast
abalone stock.''
The committee will meet for the first time from 8:30 to
3 p.m. Saturday at Fort Bragg Town Hall.
Keywords: FISHING CRIME
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