RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. — A federal judge sentenced two Riviera Beach men to prison for stealing sea turtle eggs from a St. Lucie County beach.
Carl Cobb, 60, and Raymond Saunders, 50, were sentenced to seven months in prison followed by two years of supervised released.
The Riviera Beach men pleaded guilty to transporting sea turtle eggs in order to sell them in October 2017.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission accused Cobb and Saunders of taking 485 sea turtle eggs from North Hutchinson Island in St. Lucie County.
"Law enforcement and our investigators were monitoring that beach this morning and they observed the two subjects on the beach in the act of removing the eggs and they were found to be in possession of approximately 500 eggs," FWC spokeswoman Carol Lyn Parrish said at the time of the arrest in May.
The men are also ordered to pay $227 in restitution to the state of Florida.
