BROOKPORT, Ill. (WJPF) – A Brookport man has been sentenced to a year in prison for illegally catching fish and then harvesting their eggs to make caviar.
Daniel Allen, 44, pleaded guilty to charges accusing him of catching shovelnose sturgeon out of season with illegal nets. The illegal fishing happened on the Ohio River and around the Smithland Lock and Dam from November 2018 through April 2019.
Prosecutors say after Allen caught the fish, he would sell their eggs to a caviar distributor in Tennessee.
Daniel Allen must also pay $10,000 in restitution.