Yeah and it turned out that they were delusional and people just wanted caviar to eat it >Most of the men were buying female paddlefish, processing knockoff ca

Yeah and it turned out that they were delusional and people just wanted caviar to eat it >Most of the men were buying female paddlefish, processing knockoff caviar and just … eating it. Illegal, yes. But the plot of a Russian mafia thriller? Hardly. >If the government did not realize its miscalculation, at least some officers must have on March 13, 2013, at 7 a.m. Central time, when 125 state and federal agents descended on poachers across four time zones to make arrests. >During an interrogation, one poacher was confused. The caviar was for his family to give guests when they came over. >“Why would I want to sell it?” he asked. >“To make money,” an agent suggested. >“Heck, no!” >Of the 112 defendants tagged with state or federal violations, investigators observed only Petr Babenko, the owner of a gourmet store in Vineland, New Jersey, intending to sell the stuff. He was prosecuted, convicted, and given probation. The government seized his Mercedes van. >To Hitchings, it doesn’t matter. Other men were undoubtedly selling, he said