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A two-year undercover investigation into Alaska's black market trade in dead animals and drugs was drawing to a close as federal agents began picking up dozens of people around the state.

At a mid afternoon press conference, U.S. Attorney Wevley Shea said 29 people had been charged, and action was pending against a similar number.

Charges ranged from walrus head hunting, shooting the animals for their ivory tusks and throwing away the meat to trading tusks and hides for drugs.

About 700 pounds of walrus ivory has been seized along with 31 walrus heads, five polar bear hides, and seal and sea otter skins, authorities said.

Many of the people involved in the illegal killing of Alaska wildlife did it in order to barter tusks or hides for cocaine or marijuana, said Walter Stieglitz, Alaska regional director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

An unsealed federal indictment provided some insight into how undercover Fish and Wildlife agents used confidential informants to win the trust of traders and lure them into an office in a South Anchorage strip mall rigged with hidden video and audio recorders.

Using a wholesale fur and ivory shop called Pacific Trading Company in South Anchorage as a front, agents snared Charles Anthony Lane Jr., Russell K. Silook and Terry Cook in March of last year, according to the indictment.

The indictment charges the men arrived at the store with two walrus head mounts in the back of Cook's Toyota. They were paid $600 for those animal parts, according to the indictment.

Lane who last gave the state an address in Klawock, a Native village on Prince of Wales Island in southeast Alaska bragged to agents that he personally shot 14 walrus in one day on a trip to Gambell, the indictment said.

Lane also showed off some marijuana he was taking back to the village for trade, the indictment said. Lane told Special Agent George Morrison that it was possible to trade 10 marijuana cigarettes or "joints" for a raw walrus headmount consisting of two tusks still attached to a skull, the indictment said.  "What these people were interested in was dope," Shea said at the press conference. "They didn't want cash."

Enterprising traders could take a pound of marijuana worth $3,000 in Anchorage and sell it off joint-by-joint in a Bush village for $24,000 or $25,000, Shea said.

According to Adam O'Hara, head of the Washington, D.C. - based Special Operations Division of Fish and Wildlife the investigations began with undercover agents buying and selling ivory, both legally and illegally. The first problem the agents encountered, he said, was a preference for drugs over cash.

O'Hara said some villagers became nervous about the federal undercover agents because the men wanted to deal in cash instead of drugs. Federal guidelines prevent agents from dealing in drugs.

They were, however, able to monitor the drug trade. By the time the wildlife sting was complete, Shea said, 50 to 60 percent of the defendants were under investigation for buying or selling drugs.  Headhunting for cash or drugs has long been known to take place, but its significance has been downplayed.

Federal officials said they began the undercover investigation after Native leaders requested it in 1989, and because of widespread rumors that illegal hunting was rampant in the Bush.

Alaska Natives can legally kill polar bears and walruses under the terms of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, but they are required to fully utilize the animals for meat and materials. The act bans hunting by anyone else.

O'Hara said villagers seemed to have a clear understanding of the law's requirement for salvaging meat and hides.  "They were careful," he said. "They knew (headhunting) was illegal."  But they did allow one hunt to be videotaped. R. David Purinton, special agent in charge for Alaska, unveiled that videotape.

It provided a graphic visual record of a walrus slaughter. Federal officials said the tape was intended to grab the attention of viewers, and it will no doubt do that particularly when it begins appearing on local and national television.   The NBC television network sent a film crew and a reporter to the Anchorage press conference. Copies of the walrus-slaughter video were supplied to local television stations.  The tape shows Native hunters attacking a walrus herd with semiautomatic rifles, including one weapon that would be classified as an assault rifle.

Shots bang incessantly on the tape. Some walrus fall dead. Others are wounded and dive off the ice into the sea. Laughing and excited hunters continue shooting at both live and wounded animals in the water.  Some of those eventually were killed; others no doubt died from their wounds, but none were ever recovered, O'Hara said. Six walruses that were killed before they got off the ice had their heads and tusks removed, Purinton said.

Hunters are shown rolling the carcasses over the side of an ice floe.  "This is not the typical subsistence Native hunt," Shea said.

Purinton said his office had been contacted by Native elders from the St. Lawrence Island village of Gambell who thanked Fish and Wildlife for trying to put an end to the slaughter. Those people wanted to do something, Purinton said, but couldn't control the situation.

O'Hara said he expects the arrests that took place in communities as diverse as Gambell and Anchorage to slow or temporarily stop some of the killing for cash and drugs.  "There will be an immediate deterrent," he said, but the illegal hunting will pick up again. Alaska, he said, will face continuous problems with poaching because of the large expanses of vast, unpatrolled country, and myriad other problems.  "It's difficult to enforce," he said. "It's difficult to educate . . . and you do have an economic problem."

Residents of remote areas fed the same diet of television advertisements as urban Alaskans develop a taste for such goodies as television sets, electric coffee makers, microwaves and snowmachines. But with no jobs, there are few ways to get money. Illegal hunting becomes one of those ways, and that spells long-term problems, according to Purinton.

The unsealed indictments named 21 people as defendants: Vincent Jack Alto, Larry Aningayou, Nicholas W. Brigman, Stephen Eugene Cook, Terry D. Cook, Delia Ann Crowell, Samuel Gordon Dimmick, Glen Iyahuk, Edgar Iyapana, Winifred James Sr., Larry G. Kitchen, Charles Anthony Lane Jr., Richard E. Lee, Joseph Mickey Lopez, Patrick Omiak, Sharon Lee Ranney, Richard Neal Reece, Michelle Schwartz, Russell K. Silook, Dennis Soolook and Patrick Soolook.

There was already a Pacific Trading Company in Anchorage when federal agents set up their front business of the same name. B.H. Tilton, a trustee for the original Pacific Trading, in Midtown, said his operation doesn't have anything to do with the federal sting, and he is worried it will be damaged by the emerging scandal.

Update 2/14/92:  Federal wildlife agents continued serving search warrants as part of their crackdown on an alleged statewide ivory-for-drugs operation.

A C-130 aircraft carrying 25 agents traveled to Nome and then on to the villages of Tin City and Wales, said Bruce Batten, spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. No arrests were made but officers conducted searches and interviews in the villages, he said. A trip to Diomede was postponed because of bad weather.

Only 12 of the 29 people charged in Operation Whiteout have been arrested. Federal officials said they arrested those who posed the greatest danger of escape or who faced the most serious charges. The other defendants are spread across the state and in no danger of fleeing, they said.  Nine people appeared before a federal magistrate, each asked for a court-appointed attorney.

Magistrate John Roberts released three Gambell men and said they would be allowed to return home on the condition they show up for their next court appearances. Larry Aningayou, charged with five crimes, which include trading walrus headmounts and tusks for marijuana and selling the drugs for money, described himself as a self-employed carver. He said he lives with his elderly father in Gambell.

Charles Lane , who also said he is an artist, lives with his mother and his two sons in Gambell. His half-brother, Russell Silook, works for a telephone company and lives next door in Gambell. Silook said he was arrested on the beach as he returned from a hunt.

Lane and Silook are charged with illegally selling a ribbon seal skin, walrus headmounts, tusks and skulls and with trading marine mammal parts for marijuana. They are each charged with two counts of conspiracy.

According to the indictment, on March 9, 1991, Lane told an undercover agent he had shot 14 walrus in one day on a recent trip to Gambell. A few days later, Lane and Silook told the agent they were traveling to Gambell to hunt walrus, the indictment says.

Sharon Lee Ranney, charged with trading tusks and headmounts for marijuana, was ordered held on $10,000 bond. Ranney said said she worked as a bartender in Cordova until recently.

Michelle Schwartz and Delia Ann Crowell, both of Anchorage, were held on $10,000 bond on drug and conspiracy charges. Vince Alto, charged with 10 conspiracy, drug and marine mammal offenses, was held without bail for a hearing today, and Stephen Cook was released on $7,500 unsecured bond. All four pleaded not guilty.

Roberts ordered Patrick Newhall of Anchorage held on $5,000 bond. Newhall has two drug convictions and is on probation through the Nome court, said Robert Anderson, special assistant U.S. attorney.

The other three arrested are Larry Kitchen, Frank Pelowook and Nicholas Brigman. Pelowook has not yet appeared in court and Kitchen, who appeared in court, was ordered detained for a hearing today. Brigman appeared in court and was released.

Update 4/8/92:  Three defendants in the Alaska illegal ivory trafficking case have pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court.

Vincent Jack Alto , a 29-year-old commercial fisherman from Anchorage, pleaded guilty to six felony counts, including trafficking illegal ivory, and selling cocaine and marijuana as part of the drugs-for-ivory ring. Several other felony charges will be dropped, prosecutors said.  Alto's sentencing was scheduled for July 10.

Larry Aningayou, an ivory carver from Gambell, pleaded guilty to conspiring with Alto to distribute marijuana and agreed to provide information to prosecutors. Several other charges were dropped.

Meanwhile, Sharon Lee Ranney, who has been described in court documents as Alto's girlfriend, pleaded guilty to one count each of trafficking in marijuana and illegally selling marine mammal parts.

Update 2/22/92:  The images were broadcast around the world: Eskimo hunters blasting wantonly at a herd of walruses, even as the animals plunged off the ice and out of reach. Later, the men beheaded six that were left behind, dumping the unused carcasses into the sea.

The videotape, shot by an undercover federal wildlife agent, was Exhibit A at a government press conference last week announcing a major crackdown on Alaska's black market in ivory. Network and cable television news programs ran the tape with stories about the bust.

A week after charges against 29 people were unveiled, details of the government's case are still emerging, but defense lawyers are already questioning whether the ivory sting amounted to illegal entrapment and arguing that their clients' ability to get a fair trial was damaged by the blaze of publicity.

Sue Ellen Tatter, a federal public defender, said the tape could pose problems for defendants who weren't involved in the hunt.

"I think there's a terrible problem of prejudicial pretrial publicity," she said. "That walrus killing has nothing to do with huge numbers of these people."

Of all the defendants named so far, only two are charged with the activities portrayed in the widely seen videotape. Headhunting, or killing walruses for their valuable tusks without taking meat or organs, is a felony. Glen Iyahuk and Dennis Soolook of Diomede, two of the hunters on the tape, have been summoned on charges of wasteful taking of a marine mammal, said Jim Sheridan, a special agent with the wildlife service.

Jack Alto, a 62-year-old Homer man, is charged with illegally selling raw sea otter pelts to the agents at their phony South Anchorage storefront, Pacific Trading Co. Alto is a Native who may legally sell marine mammal products, such as sea otter furs, to other Natives but not to whites.

According to affidavits prepared by Fish and Wildlife officers, Alto was introduced to the agents, posing as wholesale dealers, by his son. Vince Alto is charged with a variety of drug and marine mammal violations.

On Nov. 17 of last year, Jack Alto brought 20 sea otter pelts to the store. He had taken the otters himself, and the pelts bore government tags showing they had been taken legally. Special Agent Robert Standish bought nine of them, paying Alto in cash and ivory carvings.

After the sale, Alto removed the tags, according to the affidavit. Standish speculated he did so to prevent the illegally sold furs from being traced back to him.

Alto could not be reached this week, but his wife said by telephone from Homer her husband was told the sale was legal because Pacific Trading Co. had Native partners.

"I don't feel that he did anything wrong," said Dorothy Alto. "They had him believing they had Native partners. He told them, "I can't sell this to a white man.'"

Update 3/25/92:  Government lawyers have dismissed charges of illegal ivory trafficking against two prominent dealers, but neither the prosecution nor the defense would say the men are off the hook.

Jim West of Nome and Pete Vallejo of Anchorage were charged with violations of the Marine Mammal Act as part of a statewide crackdown on the illegal ivory trade. Federal officials filed charges against 29 people last month, announcing the bust at a widely publicized news conference.

West and Vallejo were charged in criminal complaints and summoned to appear in federal court in Anchorage. Neither man was arrested.

Illegal ivory and drug charges against Vallejo were dropped Feb. 28, just a week after he was summoned, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Bottini said. The charges against West were dismissed March 2.

"We decided to dismiss the complaint at this time and our investigation is continuing," Bottini said Monday. He refused to say why the charges were dropped or if the men will be recharged.

"I don't know what's going down," West said from his Board of Trade Saloon in Nome. "I never did think they had a case against me to start with."

West was accused of buying illegal ivory from a confidential informant last July. The informant, who is not an Alaska Native, visited West at his Front Street ivory shop and offered to sell three walrus headmounts.

West reportedly told the informant the tusks would have to be handicrafted by a Native before he could buy them, according to an affidavit filed to support the charges against him. The informant insisted he had to leave town quickly and West finally agreed to buy the ivory, paying $375 cash from his pocket, according to the affidavit.

"It was me loaning money to a carver," West said. "I've been hollering for three or four years that I have the right to loan money to a carver. In this particular case, I gave the money to the (informant)."

He argued that such financial help allows village craftsmen to support themselves.

"If they don't want me loaning them money, I want the government to put every carver in Nome and Savoonga on welfare," West said.

West and his lawyer each said the government gave no reason for dropping the charges. He had been scheduled to appear in federal court in early March, but asked for a postponement because he was busy with the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, the biggest event of the year in Nome. Bottini said that by then, the government had already decided to dismiss.

"They said they might do something else," said Neil Kennelly, West's lawyer. "They didn't say what."

A U.S. Fish and Wildlife official who supervised the investigation said the dismissals should not be interpreted as defeat for the government.

"It wouldn't be correct to figure we don't have a case," said Special Agent Jim Sheridan.

"In some cases we're probably looking at improving on the original charges. Sometimes you drop a charge because you think there's a better charge."

Vallejo, who owns the Ivory Broker on Sixth Avenue in Anchorage, had been described by Sheridan as the "biggest operator" nabbed in " Operation Whiteout ." Federal agents seized 67 untagged walrus tusks from his property. Vallejo is one of a handful of non-Natives who are registered to deal in raw ivory. But the tusks generally must be tagged by the wildlife service to show that they were taken legally by an Alaska Native.

His attorney declined to discuss the facts of the case or guess why the charges were dismissed. Vallejo was charged with three counts of illegal ivory trafficking and two counts of distribution of marijuana.

"I don't have any feedback to their state of mind in choosing to charge him or to dismiss the charges," attorney John Murtagh said.

He added that he believes Vallejo and other dealers may legally possess untagged ivory if it was taken before the Marine Mammal Act of 1972.

"I guess I'd like to think they didn't recognize at the beginning that someone who has been in the business for 20 years," could legally keep 20- year-old untagged ivory, he said.

"It would be very difficult for Mr. Vallejo . . . to not have pre-'72 ivory. I hope those are the things the government is looking at."

Update 7/31/92:  Five walrus hunters from Little Diomede were convicted of wasteful taking, after a federal jury apparently rejected defense arguments that North Pacific walrus meat is contaminated and inedible. Jurors returned guilty verdicts against Capt. Glenn Iyahuk and four members of his skin-boat crew on three counts of failing to harvest meat from 10 walrus killed in the Bering Straits ice pack, and one count of conspiracy to violate the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Jurors acquitted three of the defendants on one count of waste associated with a second, separate hunt.

U.S. Magistrate Harry Branson set sentencing for Oct. 5 in Anchorage. The hunters could be sentenced to as much as a year in jail on each count, but both sides in the case agree lesser sentences are likely.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Anderson called the verdict a victory for subsistence hunters "a vindication of a cultural value that abhors waste, which the law reflects."

Although no firm decision had been made, defense attorney Mark Wittow said some of the verdicts would likely be appealed.  "I think the prosecution didn't reflect the realities of living and hunting walrus in Little Diomede," Wittow said. "The prosecution and the law . . . have imposed an impossible standard on the people there."

The prosecution called the defendants "headhunters," meaning they killed walrus for ivory only. Supporting the charge was a videotape of the Iyahuk crew on an all-night hunt last spring, shot by an undercover federal agent who accompanied them.

Fish and Wildlife Service agent George Morrison spent several weeks in Little Diomede, part of a broader federal investigation into the ivory and drug traffic.

The tape showed the crew shooting at walrus on the ice and in the water, butchering them for their tusks and penis bones, plus a few organs and fins, then pushing the huge animal remains into the water. The pictures were bloody and caused an outcry when shown on national television earlier this year.

A defense that could explain away the pictures seemed remote until the first day of trial, when attorneys for the crew produced studies suggesting walrus meat in the Little Diomede area was tainted with enough mercury to make it unhealthy to eat.  The Marine Mammal Protection Act does not require harvest of inedible meat.

Dueling experts took the witness stand over the past week to say North Pacific marine mammals were and were not tainted, including state epidemiologist Dr. John Middaugh, who testified that health officials had given walrus a clean bill of health.

As they prepared to deliberate, jurors were told by Judge Branson that they must acquit the defendants if they concluded the meat was contaminated and unsafe to eat. Jurors were also instructed to acquit if they concluded the defendants reasonably believed the meat was unsafe, even if their belief was wrong.

In addition to waste by failing to harvest, the prosecution also argued that shooting walrus in the water and making no attempt to retrieve the bodies, as was shown in the videotape, also added up to waste.

Anderson, who works with a special wildlife and marine unit at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Burgess expressed concern that prosecuting the men from Little Diomede might be seen as an attack by the federal government on subsistence lifestyles. Just the opposite is true, Anderson said after the verdict. One purpose of the law is to see the "subsistence ethic continued."

Wittow, who represented Edgar Iyapana , saw things differently. Carving and selling ivory is an important component of subsistence and allowed by the law. Dogs used to eat much of the walrus meat taken with the ivory, but villagers don't use dogs much any more, Wittow said. "It's virtually impossible to continue taking ivory for handicrafts if you have to eat all the walrus meat."

The Little Diomede hunters, who remained free on bail after the verdicts, were among 29 people charged this past winter as a result of a federal investigation into the illegal movement of ivory and drugs through Alaska. Anderson said 25 of those have now pleaded or been convicted.

Update 10/27/92:  After another day of wrangling over the remorsefulness of Little Diomede hunters convicted of wasteful taking of walrus, a federal judge sent one of the men to prison for six months and the other to a halfway house for two months. First up was ivory carver Dennis Soolook, 37.

Standing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Harry Branson, Soolook blurted out: "That's my life, your honor. . . . I don't feel guilty." Gesturing toward Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Anderson, he added: "What they do to us?"

Boat captain Glenn Iyahuk, who arrived late and inebriated, called out: "We didn't murder nobody." His sentencing was postponed because of his condition.

Anderson argued that Soolook's response was proof he felt no remorse for the June 1991 videotaped walrus hunt that featured Soolook, his brother Patrick, Iyahuk, Edgar Iyapana and Patrick Omiak.

Dennis Soolook's lawyer, Tonja Woelber, countered that he was not unrepentant, but was distressed about the well-being of his younger brother who was sentenced to two months in jail. Given another shot, Soolook told Branson: "I'm sorry I did what I did. . . . I won't do that again."

But Branson said he was not convinced and ordered Soolook who had previous misdemeanor shoplifting convictions to serve six months in prison and pay $100 in court costs. He had faced a possible 12 months in prison and up to $100,000 in fines.

Waiting his turn, 41-year-old Iyapana, who is deaf and suffering from an ear tumor, followed the courtroom conversation transcribed onto a computer screen. Lawyer Mark Wittow described Iyapana's role in the hunt as "minimal," saying he only drove the boat.

Anderson argued Iyapana was a full participant and the video showed him shooting at walrus in two of three episodes.

Asked if he thought what he had done was wrong, Iyapana said quietly, "Yes." He was ordered to pay $100 in court costs and serve two months in a halfway house in Alaska so he can receive medical care. He had faced a possible six months in jail and $100,000 in fines.

Omiak will be sentenced soon.

Update 10/31/92:  Operation Whiteout Interim Prosecution Report *(As of 10/30/92)

Filings:
Indictments 13
Complaints 2

Total 15

By Convictions/Pleas to Counts Charged:
Convictions/Pleas to felony counts 35
Convictions/Pleas to misd. counts 32

Total 67

By Count:
Total counts charged 80
Convictions/pleas 39
Acquittals 1
Dismissals 26

By Type of Offense:
Lacey Act felony convictions/pleas 20
Lacey Act misd. convictions/pleas 6
Drug felony convictions/pleas 13
Drug misdemeanor convictions/pleas 1
MMPA misdemeanor convictions/pleas 20
Conspiracy convictions/pleas 7

By Defendant:
Total defendants charged 29
Convictions/Pleas 25
Acquittals 0
Dismissals upon motion of gov't 4
Dismissals upon motion of defense 0
Other 0

Conviction Rate:
Of defendants initially charged 86 %
Of defendants prosecuted after
charging 100 %

Prosecution Outcomes:
Financial
Fines $20,520
Restitution $34,279
Court Costs 0
Special Assessments $2,400

Total $55,679

Prison
Years 9
Months 2
Days 4

Supervised Release
Years 32
Months 0
Days 0

Probation
Years 18
Months 6
Days 0

* Two defendants remain to be sentenced.

Case #2  - 5/15/93:  Nome saloonkeeper and ivory broker Jim West has again been charged with buying illegal ivory, a misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence of a year in prison. Federal prosecutors accused West in a sketchy charging document filed in U.S. District Court in Anchorage last month.

The government has not revealed details of the alleged crime, other than to say West bought three walrus tusks Sept. 16, 1992.

But West, at work in his Board of Trade Saloon, said he remembered the incident.  "There's a g-dd--n Russian guy came in here with three pieces of ivory. I said, 'I can't buy that ivory.' He said, 'I need money to go to Anchorage.' It wasn't five minutes I had a Fish and Game guy in here."

West was charged with buying illegal raw ivory from a confidential informant last year, but the government later dismissed the charges. Those charges came as part of a statewide crackdown on illegal ivory trading known as Operation Whiteout .

When prosecutors dismissed the complaint against West, they said their investigation was continuing.  "Once they get on you, they don't never let up," West said. "We're going to fight 'em."

Case #3 - 5/16/93:  A Little Diomede man convicted of participating in a massive walrus "headhunt" two years ago was sentenced Friday to 10 months in federal prison. Gene Ozenna and his family returned from a June 1991 walrus hunt with the bloody headmounts of 90 walruses, and visiting federal workers photographed the group unloading the boats. Those photographs led to charges against seven men a year and a half later.

Ozenna pleaded guilty to one count of wastefully taking walrus, a misdemeanor. His father, three brothers, a cousin and another man have also pleaded guilty to various violations of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The others are scheduled to be sentenced in June.

In sentencing Ozenna on Friday, U.S. District Court Judge H. Russel Holland called the case the worst abuse of subsistence hunting he has seen, according to a written statement from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Last year, another Little Diomede walrus crew was convicted of failing to harvest meat from 10 walruses in a hunt that was videotaped by an undercover wildlife agent and broadcast on national television. Capt. Glenn Iyahuk was sentenced to 10 months for his role in that hunt.

The Ozenna hunt took place about the same time as that investigation, which was part of an undercover drugs-and-ivory sting called Operation Whiteout .

But the Ozennas were not targeted in Operation Whiteout , according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Burgess. Employees of the Fish and Wildlife Service happened to observe the men leave and photographed them when they returned to the island, he said.

The crew may have killed as many as 100 walruses because they admitted that some of the animals they shot on the Bering Straits pack ice fell into the water and were not retrieved, Burgess said. They cut the heads and tusks from 90 animals, then pushed the carcasses off the ice, he said. They did save the prized breast meat from about seven animals, five flippers, one rib cage and several oosiks, or penis bones.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act allows Alaska Natives to harvest walrus for subsistence use, but makes it a crime to waste the meat. The act bans hunting by anyone else. Gene Ozenna faced a maximum of a year in prison.

Others awaiting sentencing are Louis Ozenna Sr., the father and captain; his sons Roger, Howard and Joseph; Gabriel Ozenna, a nephew; and George Milligrock.

Case #4 - 12/19/97:  Six walrus hunters from Little Diomede have been indicted on federal charges of taking the heads and tusks but wasting the meat of 10 walrus during a May hunt.

Four of the six hunters, including the hunting party captain, already have a record for poaching. They were convicted in 1992 following a highly publicized U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sting called ''Operation Whiteout,'' in which 29 people were arrested for trafficking in ivory tusks and polar bear hides.

Named in the indictment by a grand jury were: Glen Iyahuk, 51, the hunting party captain in both the 1992 case and the current case; Dennis Soolook, 42; Gabriel Ozenna, 38; Patrick Omiak Sr., 62; Orville Akhinga Jr., 31; and Robert Soolook, 32.

In addition to Iyahuk, Dennis Soolook, Ozenna and Omiak were convicted in the 1992 case. Their sentences ranged from one to 10 months.

In the new case, each is charged with one count of conspiracy and one count of wasteful taking of a marine mammal. Each count carries a maximum sentence of a year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

According to the indictment, the six men were legally hunting walrus on May 22 and 23. Alaska Natives can legally kill walrus under the terms of the Marine Mammal Protection Act if they fully use the animal for meat and materials. The act bans hunting by anyone else.

When the hunters returned to their village, a Fish and Wildlife Service observer noticed that the hunting crew had 33 heads and tusks, but only enough salvaged meat, flippers, liver and coak, which is breast meat, to account for 23 walrus, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Burgess.

Investigators with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would not discuss the investigation. The service has a year-old agreement with the Eskimo Walrus Commission that says federal agents will coordinate with the commission before making statements to the media regarding alleged wasteful taking of walrus. The agreement is the result of criticisms by the commission of past investigations.

Commission director Caleb Pungowiyi of Kotzebue, who was informed of the indictments, said he was surprised to see some of the same names from the 1992 sting. ''You would think they would be more careful in terms of what they do out there,'' Pungowiyi said. ''But we can't say they are guilty until they have gone to court.''

Pungowiyi said there is an ongoing dispute of what constitutes wasteful and nonwasteful kills.  ''I think there is an undefined parameter of what is a nonwasteful take,'' he said. ''White people always need to have clear-cut guidelines to follow. We don't have that. The situation itself dictates what a hunter decides.   We don't want to get involved in saying we have to bring back 20 pounds of liver or five pounds of heart or 200 pounds of coak.''

The average male walrus is 10 feet long and weighs two tons; adult females weigh half that. Pungowiyi also said that walrus hunters are being treated differently than moose hunters. ''When hunting moose, they are not told they have to bring back so many pounds from the hindquarter. There is no requirement,'' he said. ''In a sense, it puts these (walrus) hunters in a situation where the law to them is different than what is applied to the general public.''

Update 8/13/98:  Federal prosecutors have dropped charges of illegal walrus harvesting against six Little Diomede men, but they still could face fines or other penalties.

Glen Iyahuk , Orville Ahkinga Jr., Robert and Dennis Soolook, Gabriel Ozenna and Patrick Omiak Sr. had faced one count each of conspiracy and one count each of wasteful taking of a marine mammal.

A federal grand jury indicted them in December, but those charges were dropped July 15, according to court documents.

Prosecutors apparently have crafted a plea deal that the six men now are considering.

U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler said that because not all the parties had signed off on the deal, details would not be released. But she said the deal could include the men paying fines or performing community service.

The indictment, handed up last December, accused the men of conspiring to take walrus in a wasteful manner, a violation of the federal Marine Mammals Protection Act.

The government had accused the men of wasting approximately 10 of 33 walrus they killed during a May 1997 hunt. Prosecutors said the men took only the heads and tusks from the 10 walrus, leaving the meat.

Federal law permits certain Alaska Natives to hunt walrus as long as it isn't done in a wasteful manner.

While the act doesn't spell out exactly what wasteful is, a policy worked out between the Eskimo Walrus commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Commission requires hunters to return with at least the heart, liver, flippers and coak, the animal's chest meat.

Reference:

Anchorage Daily News