All four defendants indicted in October for stealing wood from the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in the State of Washington have pled guilty, thanks in part to the government’s use of tree DNA evidence in its case.
The four defendants, three tree cutters and one buyer, made 50 sales of illegally harvested bigleaf maple between 2011 and 2012 for more than $800,000. They sold the wood out-of-state to musical instrument makers.
The government built its case against the loggers using a DNA profiling database developed by DoubleHelix, a company based in Singapore that uses genetics to detect illegal lumber. The database allowed the government to connect the bigleaf maple they seized from the four men to the leftover stumps in the Pinchot forest.
“This is a game-changing case for the Forest Service,” said Ron Malamphy, a U.S. Forest Service officer, in a report published by DoubleHelix. “We are excited that the DNA evidence helped push the thieves to settle out of court.”
The four men pled guilty to theft and environmental crimes under the Lacey Act. This is the first Lacey Act conviction for products sourced inside the U.S.
