The United States Attorney's Office
Southern District of Columbia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 2, 2009

KEYS COMMERCIAL LOBSTER OPERATION RESULTS IN CONVICTIONS, SEIZURES AND FORFEITURES

R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Eddie McKissick, Resident Agent in Charge, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Hal Robbins, Special Agent in Charge, NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement, Southeast Division, Commander Dave Score, Superintendent of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and Major Jeff Ardelean, Regional Commander, Special Protection Area, Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWCC), announced that on April 1, 2009, in federal District Court in Key West, a jury convicted the last remaining defendant, Michael Delph, 39, of Key West, for illegally harvesting lobsters from artificial habitat placed in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS). According to evidence presented at trial, Delph was directly involved in the harvest of 922 whole lobster, as part of a conspiracy that illegally took 1,197 lobster on the opening day of Florida’s commercial lobster season in August 2008, and stockpiled approximately 1,700 pounds of wrung lobster tail harvested during the closed season which was intended for sale after opening day. Delph is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Jose E. Martinez on June 10, 2009. Delph faces a possible term of imprisonment on the conspiracy conviction of up to five years in prison.

The five other co-conspirators in the Indictment were David W. Dreifort, 41, Denise D. Dreifort, 48, both of Cudjoe Key, Robert H. Hammer, 46, of Miami, Sean N. Reyngoudt, 25, of Summerland Key, and John R. Niles, 50, of Labelle. They were charged with conspiring to harvest large quantities of spiny lobster within the FKNMS, from illegally installed artificial habitat, and in violation of applicable bag limits, for commercial sale in violation of the federal Lacey Act, all in violation of the federal conspiracy statute, Title 18, United States Code, Section 371. The five codefendants had all previously pled guilty. Judge Martinez set sentencing for Hammer and Reyngoudt for June 1, and the Dreiforts are both scheduled to be sentenced on June 2, 2009. Defendant Niles, the first to enter a guilty plea in this matter, cooperated in the case, and testified against his co-defendant Delph. In recognition of his acceptance of responsibility, minor role, and assistance in the case, Niles was sentenced to a term of probation of one year.

The FKNMS is a 2,900 square nautical mile area that surrounds the entire archipelago of the Florida Keys and includes the productive waters of Florida Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic Ocean. It encompasses coastal and oceanic waters, and the submerged lands thereunder, surrounding the Florida Keys, and extending westward to include the Tortugas islands, but excluding Dry Tortugas National Park. The FKNMS supports rich biological communities with extensive conservation, recreational, commercial, ecological, historical, research, educational, and aesthetic values of national significance.

Marine Sanctuary regulations prohibit any alterations of, or construction on the seabed of the FKNMS, as part of the effort to preserve the marine environment. In addition, the Florida Administrative Code, Chapter 68B, which apply to the FKNMS, prohibits anyone from harvesting any spiny lobster from artificial habitat. Artificial habitat is defined as "any material placed in the waters of the state that is reasonably suited to providing cover and habitat for spiny lobster.. ." Other parts of Chapter 68B prohibit any person from commercially harvesting, attempting to harvest, or having in their possession, regardless of where taken, any spiny lobster during the closed season. The commercial season runs from August 6 through March 31 of the following year. An exception exists for the annual lobster sport mini-season. Those holding appropriate licenses and endorsements to commercially dive for lobster are limited to 250 lobster per day.

NOAA and FWS Special Agents became aware of a group constructing illegal artificial lobster habitat, often referred to informally as "casitas" or "condos" in the lower Keys. According to testimony at trial, agents tracked a boat on July 28, 2008, owned by David Dreifort, as it traveled entirely within the waters of the Sanctuary, harvesting spiny lobsters out of season. Subsequently the lobsters were placed in a freezer at a lower Keys residence, which held about 650 pounds of previously harvested, frozen tails. The pattern of stock piling and freezing lobsters taken ahead of the legal season led agents to dub the case "Operation Freezer Burn." Officers returned to the GPS logged sites within the FKNMS and found each site held artificial habitats. The divers also found freshly wrung spiny lobster heads.

On opening day of the annual commercial lobster season, August 6, 2008, a multi-agency team executed a search warrant at the Dreifort residence, and executed five seizure warrants, taking custody of boats, vehicles, and a trailer used in the criminal violations. Over 1,700 pounds of frozen lobster tails, representing more than 1,000 times the legal bag limit for a mini-season sport dive were seized by agents. The defendants, with the exception of Reyngoudt, were intercepted as they returned from a morning harvesting trip in the FKNMS, during which more than 922 lobsters were illegally harvested. Part of the harvest effort was recorded by a surveillance aircraft, and shown to the jury during the Delph trial. The jury also heard a statement recorded by agents on August 6, during which Delph admitted to diving on illegal habitat and harvesting an excessive number of lobsters that day. He further admitted that he had contacted David Dreifort before the season to offer his services as a lobster diver, in anticipation of being paid for his involvement, and confessed to having been involved in the same activity on multiple occasions during the prior year’s open season.

In conjunction with the criminal investigation and conviction of the Dreiforts for illegally placing and maintaining the artificial habitat and illegally harvesting lobsters out of season in the FKNMS, the federal government brought a civil suit against the Dreiforts under the National Marine Sanctuaries Act (NMSA),seeking compensation for costs and damages incurred as a result of natural resource injuries caused by the Dreiforts’ artificial habitats within the Sanctuary. On March 20, 2009, the Justice Department lodged a civil consent decree in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), encompassing a settlement of the federal government’s civil claims against the Dreiforts.

Under the terms of the consent decree, the Dreiforts must sell two properties in the Florida Keys, including their residence at Cudjoe Key which was the staging ground for the criminal conduct, to reimburse the agency's costs and pay damages in the case. The Dreiforts will pay NOAA the proceeds from the sale of the houses, up to a maximum of $1.1 million. The money recovered as damages will be used by NOAA to remove more than 1500 of the casitas that have been illegally placed in the FKNMS over the years.

U.S. Attorney Acosta stated, "South Florida is home to a unique and fragile marine environment that must be preserved. The U.S. Attorney's Office is committed to helping protect these natural habitats from poachers and others who seek to profit at the expense of our scarce natural resources."

"The intentional dumping of debris into the sanctuary destroys valuable marine resources, undermines efforts to establish a sustainable fishery, and cheats fishermen who are trying to make a legal living," said CDR Dave Score, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary superintendent. "This settlement represents a huge win for the ecosystem, the lobster fishing industry in the Keys, and the taxpayers."

Mr. Acosta commended the coordinated investigative efforts of the NOAA Office for Enforcement, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, and the personnel of the National Marine Fisheries Service Restoration Center and the Damage Assessment& Resource Protection Office of the National Marine Sanctuary Program which brought the matter to a successful conclusion. The criminal case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Watts-FitzGerald, in coordination with Steven Keller of the Environmental Enforcement Section of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, DC, which is prosecuting the civil claims.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.