Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries enforcement agents arrested a subject for alleged crab trap theft in St. Bernard Parish on Feb. 15.
Agents arrested Colby Guerra, 38, of St. Bernard Parish, for theft of crab traps and booked him into the St. Bernard Parish Jail.
Agents were notified on Feb. 15 that a lot leased by Colby Guerra allegedly had multiple crab traps belonging to other commercial crab fisherman. Agents with permission from the land owner searched the property in question and discovered untagged crab traps, cut commercial hard tags and mangled traps scattered throughout the property.
Commercial fisherman were then asked to identify traps that were allegedly stolen and to bring their own crab traps to compare. After further investigation, agents seized 30 stolen crab traps from Guerra.
Theft of crabs traps carries up to a $950 fine and 120 days in jail. In addition to all other penalties, for the first violation, the department shall suspend or revoke the violator’s crab trap gear license for a period of one year from the date of the conviction and no new crab trap gear license shall be issued to the violator during the period of suspension or revocation. During the period in which the violator’s license is suspended or revoked, the violator may be present on a vessel commercially harvesting or processing crabs only if that vessel is equipped with and is actively using a vessel monitoring system accessible to the department.
Guerra may also be sentenced to perform up to 40 hours of community service by removing abandoned crab traps as a part of the derelict crab trap removal program or in a litter abatement community service program.
Agents participating in this case are Senior Agent Shea Schexnaydre, Sgt. Joshua Laviolette, Sgt. Villere Reggio, Sgt. Jason Gernados and Lt. Adam Young.