I recall a similar situation a couple of years ago involving one or more Tulalip tribal members where there were enough such incidents reported that law enforcement did a fly over of the suspect's property and documented enough information to convince the appropriate authorities to do a search. Again, my recollection is that they found a number of recreational pots with owners' names still affixed. I don't recall the outcome if it was ever made public.

As mentioned earlier in this thread the real question is who is buying this presumably illegally taken crab? Seems it would be much easier for LE to work from information received from the thief than from following paperwork from the retailer back to the wholesaler which is how they recently uncovered a Tulalip crabber selling to a commercial buyer and neither of them submitting the necessary paperwork to document the catch. This was in the magnitude of tens of thousands of pounds of crab that was not applied to the tribal share and ultimately was over and above the total agreed upon harvestable poundage.

Sale of illegally taken crab would seem to be a violation of the Lacey Act of 1900 (Federal) in addition to a variety of State laws. The Lacey Act most notably prohibits trade in wildlife, fish, and plants that have been illegally taken, transported or sold.