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A man who abused the customary permit system to illegally harvest more than 4600 crayfish for a widespread black market ring has been sent to prison.
John Nohotima, 60, made nearly $64,000 from his commercial-scale poaching operation, but the value of the crayfish he took would have been $300,000 if it had been harvested and sold legally.
He appeared for sentencing in the Wairoa District Court on Wednesday - the latest of a dozen members of what the Crown called a “sprawling” black market operation to face the courts.
Nohotima harvested the crayfish at Māhia over 11 months between 2020 and 2021 using falsified customary permits and they were sold throughout Auckland, Kawerau, Tauranga, Gisborne, Wairoa, Māhia and Napier.