GULFPORT, Miss. – Three family members from Louisiana have plead guilty to conspiring to smuggle 52 white tailed deer into Mississippi. Ronald Reine, his son Brian Reine, and grandson Bruce Swilley accepted plea agreements Monday in U.S. District Court in Gulfport. The deer came from as far as Pennsylvania and were dropped off at Hunter’s Ridge in Pearl River County and Half Moon Ranch in Lamar County between October 2011 and November 2012.
Brain Reine could face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Ronald Reine and Swilley face up to a year in prison and $100,000 fines. They will be sentenced in October.
Smuggling deer into Mississippi violates state and federal conservation laws that are meant to protect deer populations from outside diseases like chronic wasting disease and bovine tuberculosis.
