Special Anti-Poaching Patrol Nets Six Violators

Just after midnight on Sunday, January 11th, ranger Ryan Balentine and Mississippi game warden Steven Strader were working an anti-poaching operation on the Natchez Trace Parkway near milepost 28 in Jefferson County when they saw the operator of a Ford F-150 pickup stop his truck in the middle of the parkway and point it so as to shine its headlights on a deer decoy. The passenger then fired two shots at the decoy. The truck then headed south on the parkway, with the ranger and warden in pursuit. It was intercepted by ranger Jerome Timmons, who’d been waiting in concealment at milepost 25. A deer was found in the back of the truck that investigation revealed had been shot in Louisiana about three hours earlier. All three occupants of the truck were charged with several state and federal violations, including the Lacey Act. This was the second instance of attempted poaching on that weekend. Balentine and game warden Jock Smith were working a deer poaching detail on the Saturday before the above incident when they head a shot coming from the parkway just north of their location. They found a blue Lincoln Town Car parked on the shoulder. Timmons joined them there. They found that a passenger in the car had shot at a deer, but had evidently missed. Three people in the car were charged with state and federal violations.