It was announced Wednesday by Karen Loeffler, U.S. Attorney for the Justice Department that Canadian, Patrick J. Downey of Turner Valley Alberta, was sentenced in May to the sale of unlawfully taken and possessed Dall Sheep.

67-year-old Turner Valley resident Downey, pled guilty to charges in May of this year to charges that he took two undersized sheep. At sentencing, Downey paid a fine of $20,000 and is on probation for five years and during that time cannot hunt or guide in the United States.

The case against Downey arose from 2008 to 2009 when Downey worked as a licensed guide in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge. In 2008, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephan Cooper, Downey guided Thomas McGann of Longmont, Colorado. Mcgann shot a Dall Sheep thinking it was legal siize. It was found later that it did not meet the measurement requirents to be legal. One of the horns was sub-legal.

To obscure that fact, Master Guide Joe Hendricks and Downey hammered the horn with a rock. It passed inspection by Fish and Game inspectors. But, it did not pass the investigation carried out by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and agents seized the horns.

Similarly, in August of 2009, client Delbert Oney of Lockwood, Missouri, mistakenly shot a ram with under-length horns. Again, Downey, with the help of Oney, the tow altered the tips of both horns with a rock. This time, the horns didn’t pass state inspection.

In a separate case, Hendicks was sentenced in superior court to a fine of $125,000 and restricted from hunting for five years. His clients, were fined $10,000 each.

As of today, investigations by the USFWS , and Law Enforcenet has resulted in nearly a dozen convictions of guides, clients aqnd employees.

Master Guide Joe Hendricks was sentenced in U.S. District Court earlier in 2012 in Fairbanks to a fine of $125,000 and a restiction of hunting or guiding for a period of five years.

Nearly a dozen of the guides from Fair Chase Guides have been convicted since the investigation has started. Registered co-owner Christpher Cassidy, co-owner of FHC pled guilty in June of 2011.