Violators face $250,000 fines and five-year jail sentences for illegal trafficking of deer (2005-02-28)

Michael James Rozell, 44, Mora, and Brian Henry Becker, 34, Madelia, recently plead guilty in federal court in Minneapolis to felony counts of violating the Lacey Act involving the illegal trade of deer in interstate commerce.

In early 2001, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Special Investigations Unit (SIU) initiated an investigation utilizing both covert and overt phases involving SIU Investigators as well as DNR conservation officers.

SIU is a plainclothes unit that investigates, gathers evidence and prosecutes major commercial violators of natural resource laws. The scope of the investigation eventually included the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who along with DNR investigators, spent countless hours reviewing sales receipts, travel vouchers and bank records involving the case.

From 1999 through 2002, Rozell and Becker engaged in the illegal interstate transportation and subsequent sale of more than 30 live whitetail deer to out-of-state shooting preserves. The dollar value of this illicit operation was difficult to determine with accuracy. However, SIU Investigators and USFWS Special Agents documented the transfer of tens of thousands of dollars during this time frame.

Rozell and Becker each face a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison and/or a $250,000 fine, said DNR Chief Conservation Officer Col. Mike Hamm.

"Rozell and Becker are arguably two of Minnesota's largest illegal traffickers of live whitetail deer posing a serious threat to the health of the state's wild deer population," Hamm said. "This investigation should serve notice to others contemplating similar acts that severe penalties can be imposed."

Of particular concern to state and federal officials is the risk posed by the interstate sale of the whitetail deer without meeting tuberculosis testing requirements by the Minnesota Board of Animal Health.

"A Michigan hunter was recently diagnosed with bovine tuberculosis after he cut his hand while field dressing an infected deer," Hamm said. "This appearance of bovine TB in a human is rare, but underscores the human health risk of the disease in free-ranging deer."

Bovine tuberculosis is a serious bacterial disease that affects primarily the lungs and sometimes the digestive tract of livestock, deer and other wildlife.

Case agents for the state and federal wildlife enforcement agencies continue to receive information. Presently, federal indictments have been handed down to a shooting preserve operator in Oklahoma. The investigation also continues in at least two other states with additional federal prosecution a possibility.

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