1 year and 1 day for illegal caviar smuggling

Thomas Jerry Nix, Jr., 39, of Memphis, Tenn., formerly of Shell Knob, was sentenced on Feb. 2 in federal court in Springfield. The court also ordered Nix to pay $30,002 in restitution to the Missouri Department of Conservation.

In September of 2008, Nix pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to engage in illegal commercial fishing for American paddlefish on Table Rock Lake and to illegally take paddlefish eggs, called roe, and process them into caviar. 

According to court reports, Nix set three gill nets on Table Rock Lake and used a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver to mark the location of the nets. Every one to three days thereafter, Nix and his co-conspirator returned to check the gill nets for paddlefish.

When paddlefish were retrieved from the gill nets, Nix slit open each paddlefish suspected to contain eggs and extracted them from the paddlefish by hand. They sealed the eggs in plastic bags and transported them to Nix’s residence in Shell Knob. As the paddlefish moved upstream, Nix relocated the gill nets. In attempt to conceal their scheme, Nix and his accomplice sank the carcasses of the paddlefish they killed by weighting them with rocks.

Periodically, Nix and his co-conspirator transported the processed paddlefish caviar from Shell Knob to three separate locations in Tennessee, where it was sold to a company engaged in the business of buying, processing and selling caviar. Between Jan. 11 and Feb. 11, 2008, Nix sold approximately 387 pounds of paddlefish caviar to the firm for a total of $35,820.

Upon a search of Nix’s residence in Shell Knob, officers discovered over 90 pounds of additional paddlefish roe that was labeled and ready to be sold. On Feb. 18, 2008, Nix led agents to three gill nets in Table Rock Lake. Upon their retrieval, agents were able to release 17 live paddlefish caught in the nets.

Paddlefish roe is subject to USDA regulations, and improperly processed paddlefish roe is subject to contamination by botulinum brucella and listeria monocyteogenes.