Reagan Farquharson (left), Carson Bottoms, and Drake Cannon had been arrested in February. KLTV / Cass County Jail, Gregg County Jail, Titus County Jail
In early February, wildlife officers with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department arrested three males in East Texas as a part of a three-year investigation right into a poaching ring that allegedly shot over 100 deer illegally in 4 totally different states. It’s potential that extra people might be arrested because the multi-state investigation strikes ahead.
Carson Don Bottoms, 21, Drake Anthony Cannon, 23, and Reagan Beavan Farquharson, 18, are the three Texas males who had been arrested in February, in keeping with KLTV News. A TPWD sport warden defined to KLTV that the arrests adopted years of investigation into what he referred to as an “extreme” variety of wildlife crimes. These included trespassing and taking pictures deer year-round from a automobile at night time. Officials consider the poaching ring was chargeable for illegally taking pictures greater than 100 deer in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Iowa.
TPWD sport warden and public info officer Matt Hill tells Outdoor Life that officers are hesitant to launch extra details about the continued investigation. He confirmed that TPWD has been working along side fish and sport businesses in different states, and that these businesses might make extra arrests and convey extra prices associated to the poaching ring.
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Since the alleged wildlife crimes passed off in a number of states, it’s potential that the people concerned violated the Lacey Act by bringing poached deer throughout state strains. Hill says that TPWD will let the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service deal with any federal prices associated to the poaching ring.
“We want to make sure all the charges are filed, and that everybody who needs to be arrested is arrested, before we put out full information about the case,” Hill says. “This is a big case, though. We feel confident that this will be something that other game wardens will look at and possibly study in order to prevent crimes like this from happening in the future.”