http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/05/18/ ... viar.shtml

Russian Immigrants Suspected of Poaching Californian Sturgeon for Caviar

Created: 18.05.2005 17:24 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 17:24 MSK, 9 hours 47 minutes ago

MosNews

California authorities have smashed a caviar poaching ring consisting of immigrants from Russia and Ukraine. The gang members are suspected of stealing rare white sturgeon from local rivers and selling the roe for up to $250 a pound to immigrant communities, The Daily Telegraph wrote on Wednesday.

Experts fear that the theft of Sacramento River sturgeon could threaten the species.

Nine men were arrested and six charged with conspiracy after state game wardens raided a Russian delicatessen in San Francisco and several Ukrainian workshops. The alleged ringleader, Nikolai Krasnodemsky, reportedly poached the fish and prepared and packaged the caviar in two car body shops in an industrial suburb north of Sacramento.

The community of recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union in the area is estimated at 75,000 to 100,000 people.

Officials from the Department of Fish and Game tracked five shipments Krasnodemsky made to San Francisco involving 120lb of Sacramento River Delta caviar valued at just under $16,000. It was sold out of homes and at a Russian delicatessen. The shop’s owner was arrested and charged. Three other men were arrested, accused of approaching undercover game agents posing as fishermen and asking to buy the sturgeon they had caught.