February 22, 2018 — Two men from midcoast Maine have been indicted in New Jersey as part of an East Coast baby eel trafficking scheme that so far has netted 19 guilty pleas.
Joseph Kelley of Woolwich and James Lewis of West Bath are charged in U.S. District Court in New Jersey with conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act, two counts of violation of the Lacey Act and smuggling.
Prosecutors allege that during 2013 and 2014, the two men illegally harvested, transported and sold baby eels, also known as elvers.
Fishing for elvers is illegal in all states except Maine, where it is permitted along the entire coast, and South Carolina, where the practice is permitted only in the Cooper River.
Federal prosecutors charged Kelley and Lewis with conspiring with other named conspirators — including Albert Cray of Phippsburg; Mark Green of West Bath; John Pinkham of Bath; George Anestis of Boxborough, Massachusetts; Michael Bryant of West Yarmouth, Massachusetts; and Thomas Choi, who owned a seafood company in Cambridge, Maryland — who purchased, sold or exported elvers worth more than $1.5 million, according to court documents.
Choi was sentenced in December to serve six months in prison for his role in the scheme.
Woolwich resident Bill Sheldon, one of the country’s major elver dealers, pleaded guilty in October to elver trafficking, but his sentencing date has not yet been set.
Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News