Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries enforcement agents arrested a Buras man for alleged commercial crab trap violations in Plaquemines Parish on Sept. 25.

Agents arrested Andrew Tran, 30, for theft of crab traps, destruction of crab traps, and possession of untagged crab traps.  He was booked into the Plaquemines Parish Jail.

Agents received information about Tran stealing crab traps and then later using the trap with his identification as his own trap.  Agents investigated this claim, made contact with Tran, and found him in possession of two untagged crab traps.

After further investigation, agents determined that Tran stole the untagged traps in his possession and was found to have stolen other traps and then claiming them to be his own.

Theft of crab traps, destruction of crab traps and possession of untagged crab traps bring up to a $950 fine and 120 days in jail for each offense.

In addition to all other penalties for the first violation, the department shall suspend or revoke the violator's crab trap gear license for a period of one year from the date of the conviction and no new crab trap gear license shall be issued to the violator during the period of suspension or revocation.  During the period in which the violator's license is suspended or revoked, the violator may be present on a vessel commercially harvesting or processing crabs only if that vessel is equipped with and is actively using a vessel monitoring system accessible to the department.

Also if convicted, the violator shall be sentenced to perform up to 40 hours of community service.

The case will be forwarded to District Attorney Charles Ballay for prosecution.

Case agents are Lt. Adam Young, Sgt. Villere Reggio, Corporal Austin Landry, and Agent Josh Schilling.