7/11/2008

Conservation officers with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources yesterday arrested 10 people, cited an additional person, seized more than 125 venomous snakes and other reptiles, and expect to issue more than 700 charges following a nearly two-year undercover investigation focusing on the illegal possession, importation and buying and selling of reptiles in Kentucky.

Forty-four conservation officers served arrest warrants in Bell, Harlan, Madison, Letcher and Boone counties. Officers also seized illegal western diamondback rattlesnakes, timber rattlesnakes, cottonmouth water moccasins, northern and southern copperheads, cobras, great basin rattlesnakes, a gaboon viper, a puff adder and an alligator.

Undercover officers purchased more than 200 illegal reptiles during the nearly two-year investigation code named