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U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said the charges announced Thursday against David W. Dreifort, 41, reflected one of the largest lobster poaching operations ever prosecuted in the southeastern U.S.

More than 6,000 lobster tails were confiscated after Dreifort was arrested earlier this week, about 1,000 times the legal pouch limit towards Florida’s just-completed lobster sport diving mini-season. And officials said most of them were taken from protected seabeds of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

At up to $20 a pound, this one amount of confiscated lobster tails could obtain been sold to local fish houses on this account that about $30,000. Hundreds of various take part in the annual sport mini-season, which this year claimed the lives of four people searching because the popular crustaceans.

“Actions similar this have long-run consequences. It means divers have to dive more ofttimes and look longer to catch their legal confine,” Acosta said.

The operation used traps known as “casitas” that can range from large slabs of concrete and metal to discarded washing machines and parts of roofs. Lobsters are attracted to the cover they provide. All a poacher has to do is mark the spot by a GPS evasion and return to scoop up the entrap.

Beyond the unlicensed poaching, these traps subsist possible to convoy into existence dead zones among the coral and grasses that provide natural locality for fish and other sea creatures.

“Casitas acquire been an ongoing problem in the Keys,” said Dave Score, superintendent of the Keys marine sanctuary. “We’ve been seeing these for a number of years.”

Dreifort, of Cudjoe Key, was freed on in addition than $1 million bail after a brief federal court hearing Thursday in Key West. His attorney, Manny Garcia, said Dreifort will argue not guilty.

“We enjoin aggressively defend this case,” Garcia reported.

Dreifort was charged through federal environmental law violations and conspiracy, which could bring a prison judicial decree of up to five years each during the time that well as fines and penalties. Prosecutors also planned to seek forfeiture of Dreifort’s fishing boat, gear and other items. It’s also possible others could be charged.

According to a criminal complaint, federal agents were tipped that Dreifort had been harvesting lobster illegally for 20 years and had more than 1,000 pounds stored in a freezer at his home. After checking out the tip, they used GPS technology to track Dreifort’s boat in late July to allegedly collect lobsters and then used a hidden camera to registry him placing lobster tails in the freezer.

Agents afterward returned to the eight offshore sites Dreifort visited, finding lobster traps and remains of lobsters whose tails had been wrung from them. They took photos and video of the underwater locations.