>Most of the men were buying female paddlefish, processing knockoff caviar and just … eating it. Illegal, yes. But the plot of a Russian mafia thriller? Hardly.
>If the government did not realize its miscalculation, at least some officers must have on March 13, 2013, at 7 a.m. Central time, when 125 state and federal agents descended on poachers across four time zones to make arrests.
>During an interrogation, one poacher was confused. The caviar was for his family to give guests when they came over.
>“Why would I want to sell it?” he asked.
>“To make money,” an agent suggested.
>“Heck, no!”
>Of the 112 defendants tagged with state or federal violations, investigators observed only Petr Babenko, the owner of a gourmet store in Vineland, New Jersey, intending to sell the stuff. He was prosecuted, convicted, and given probation. The government seized his Mercedes van.
>To Hitchings, it doesn’t matter. Other men were undoubtedly selling, he said