La Crosse turtle thief facing federal prison time

Man admits to taking animals from the wild and shipping them to Florida

A La Crosse man could go to federal prison, for admitting to shipping rare turtles illegally. 

Markos Diderrich has pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to illegally taking wild animals and sending them across state lines. 

The 28-year-old has admitted that two years ago, he took four Blanding’s turtles from Weaver Dunes in Minnesota and brought them home to Wisconsin, where he shipped the turtles to a dealer in Florida, in violation of the Lacey Act. 

Blanding’s turtles are a threatened species, worth up to $700 a pair.

Diderrich was exchanging those animals for a different breed of turtle. 

A few days later, a bystander on a bicycle called the Minnesota DNR when he saw Diderrich go back to the dunes and try to steal more turtles. 

Diderrich also is accused of selling wild salamanders without a permit. 

He’ll be sentenced for the turtle theft in September.