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Ran across this interesting story today:

A northeast Minnesota trapper's legal nightmare may just be beginning. Roderick "Rick" Kottom, sentenced June 4 in St. Louis County District Court on a bevy of state charges for illegal trapping activity, now faces federal charges.

The long-time trapper from Chisholm was found guilty of state charges of possession of a prohibited wild animal, misdemeanor failure to check traps/snares, petty misdemeanor failure to provide identification of traps/snares, and misdemeanor unlawful storage of protected wild animals.

State conservation officers had been tracking Kottom's activities since 2002. In 2004, conservation officers using a search warrant seized a number of fisher and pine marten pelts from his home.

Kottom was convicted of possession of a prohibited wild animal and received one year in jail, $3,000 fine, two years supervised probation, $962 fine and surcharge, $200 restitution (two fisher at $100 each). Kottom also agreed to report as directed to probation authorities, remain law abiding, and be subject to random searches.

For the misdemeanor failure to check traps/snares, Kottom was fined $320. Kottom was also fined $132 for petty misdemeanor failure to provide identification of traps/ snares and $362 for misdemeanor unlawful storage of protected wild animals. Both are to run concurrent to the $962 fine and surcharge.

However, Kottom's legal problems may be far from over. A 2003 Internet sting lead a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent to an advertisement on the Web placed by someone calling himself "Papa Fisher." The person was offering to sell fisher and pine marten pelts that had been trapped in Minnesota.

E-mail and telephone calls led the agent to Kottom, who now faces federal charges of illegally buying and selling animals over the Internet and a violation of the endangered species act for possessing a Canada lynx. The federal court proceeding is scheduled to begin in July in Duluth.

Here's a detailed account of the entire "chase"....

A combination of high tech help, good natural resources law enforcement investigative work and patience have a trapper facing over $11,000 in fines and restitution, and more than three years jail.

Charged recently in St. Louis County District Court with a variety of trapping and natural resources violations was Roderick R. "Rick" Kottom, 56, of Chisholm.

On Dec. 14, 2004, conservation officers (CO) with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) using a search warrant seized approximately 16 fisher pelts and 21 pine marten pelts from Kottom's home. None of pelts showed any evidence of tagging or registration as required by state law. The search warrant was based on information obtained by CO's from 2002 through 2004.

A VARIETY OF SURVEILLANCE TECHNIQUES

On Nov. 2, 2002, CO Marty Stage of Babbitt received a call from a hunter who observed a live fisher in a snare next to a road. Stage and an 1854 Tribal Officer met and started their investigation by finding another fisher and a fox in snares further back in the woods. The animals were in poor shape. The fisher was euthanized; the fox was already dead.

"The animals had been there for quite some time because of the age and condition of ground disturbance, the condition of claw marks on the tree where the snare was anchored and the visual appearance of snare wounds on the fisher's neck," Stage said.

He noticed that the snares were not tagged with a name or any other information.

Stage had to leave site, but seized the animals and illegal snares. He also left a fisher and a snare at the rear most location of the site to indicate whether a person had checked the traps after his departure.

Stage continued surveillance of the site over the next few days observing a couple of vehicles drive by the site at high speed during the day.

Additional surveillance operations were utilized at the location. Four days later, Stage along with CO Mike Ramstorf returned to the site. They discovered that the fisher carcass and the snare had been removed, and the snare wire that held the fisher had been cut.

A review of surveillance footage showed a male driving a red pickup with matching fiberglass topper stop directly across the road from the location of the snares. The footage showed the driver exiting the vehicle and removing what appeared to be a bucket from the back of the truck.

The man walked into the woods and returned with the fisher. He opened the hood of the truck, placed the fisher inside, closed the hood, and drove away. Officers were able to obtain a partial license plate from the vehicle.

State Patrol dispatchers determined the plate was likely registered to the wife of Rick Kottom. A check found the vehicle parked in front of the Kottom residence. A further check confirmed the physical description and date of birth of Kottom were consistent with the male in the video.

"PAPA FISHER"

On Dec. 5, a special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service observed an advertisement on the Internet by someone named "Papa Fisher" offering to sell Minnesota caught fisher and pine marten. The covert agent contacted DNR Enforcement’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU), which directed him to respond to the advertisement and request more details from the seller regarding the fisher and marten.

SIU is a "plain clothes" unit that investigates, obtains and documents evidence of natural resources law violations. SIU would use its technical and investigative expertise to support the investigation.

On Dec. 7, 2003, the agent received an e-mail message from "Papa Fisher" stating he had eight whole fisher and four pine marten for sale. The following day the covert agent requested a telephone number to discuss price and other details. A check of the number indicated it was Kottom’s home phone number.

During a subsequent phone conversation on Dec. 9, Kottom identified himself and stated he had a total of eight fisher, including four females and four males; the selling price was $50 per fisher. Kottom further stated he would ship the fisher via overnight air by UPS, FedEx, or through the regular mail, and agreed to check prices on the shipping costs. He also said he had four pine marten for sale at $35 a piece. Shipping and handling would be $30 for the lot.

On Dec. 14, the covert special agent again spoke with Kottom who said he would sell the fisher for $45 a piece. The agent said he would purchase six fisher and two pine marten. They finalized the order the following day. Kottom would receive $380 for the animals. Kottom told the agent, "I caught those marten."

On Jan. 12, 2004, the agent received an e-mail message from Kottom stating he had sent the fisher via UPS that day. On Jan.15, the package was received with the return address of Rick Kottom, 222 Southwest Third Street, Chisholm, Minn.

Kottom did not have a license to buy or sell furs as required by Minnesota law. Kottom was charged with: gross overlimit of wild animals, fine/restitution was set at $3,900 and/or one year in jail; take or possess fisher in closer season, one year and/or $3,000; unlawfully buying or selling wild animals, one year and/or $3,000; and failure to provide identification of traps and snares, $300. There would be a fifth charge.

TRAPPER SNARED IN INVESTIGATION

In 2002 and 2003, CO's monitored two trap sites that consisted of a box cubby set with snares set near Chisholm. None of the traps or snares were marked with the required identification. Surveillance operations caught Kottom walking into the trap sites, which remained active year round.

On Nov. 17, 2004, CO's followed Kottom and found fresh trap sites on Peyla Road, Moccasin Point Road, Glenmore Road and Twin Lakes Road. Surveillance showed he stopped in those areas on Nov. 29. The trap route ran from Peyla to Tower to Ely and east of Ely into Lake County, ending at Snowbank Lake. The southern part of the loop followed St. Louis County Road 21, south of Ely and west toward Highway 169. Kottom never checked this part of the loop after Nov. 29.

Officers pulled the trap sites on Dec. 15 and 16, finding three pine marten, one fisher and three red fox caught in various sets along the route.

On Nov. 23, CO's found a black plastic tube cubby set near the intersection of the Little Fork River and St. Louis County Road 114. The cubby set had an activated conibear trap in the cubby and fresh bait and scent.

The trap was not marked with any identification. The officers also found two more of the same type of sets within a few miles of the first set. One was on the Koochiching/St. Louis county line and the other in Koochiching County. Both sets had activated, unmarked conibear traps in the cubbies. Later surveillance by conservation officers found that Kottom had stopped at the traps on Nov. 27, Dec. 4 and Dec. 11, 2004.

On Dec. 3, CO Don Bozovsky of Hibbing located and marked a fisher in a snare, and monitored the trap site to see when the fisher was removed. Bozovsky watched a male and a juvenile tend the trap site and leave with the fisher. The vehicle was tracked to 222 Southwest Third Street, Chisholm; home of Rick Kottom. The surveillance operation identified different tracking routes that Kottom traveled as well as GPS coordinates of trapping sites.

CO's used the coordinates and substantiated active trapping lines north and northwest of Chisholm along the St. Louis, Itasca, and Koochiching county lines.

The surveillance further showed the defendant was only checking the lines each Saturday between Nov. 27, 2004 and Dec. 11, 2004.

Kottom was charged with failure to check traps or snares. Maximum sentence is 90 days in jail and/or $1,000 fine bringing total fine/restitution on the five counts to $11,200 and more than three years in jail, if convicted.