ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Three Alaskans charged in federal court with illegal wildlife trafficking are planning to change their pleas to guilty.
The Anchorage Daily News says the planned pleas were made by 46-year-old Jesse Joseph Leboeuf, his companion — 52-year-old Loretta Audrey Sternbach and 50-year-old Richard Blake Weshenfelder.
Leboeuf, convicted of theft in Washington state in 1982, are accused of trading cigarettes, guns, bullets and snowmobiles to St. Lawrence Island residents for walrus tusks and polar bear hides.
They are accused of conspiring to illegally sell and transport walrus tusks and polar bear hides in violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act.
