Ronald Martin sentenced for cross-border hunting violations

An Alaska hunting guide with dozens of convictions in the United States was sentenced in Whitehorse on Friday for his cross-border violations.

Ronald Martin was fined $20,000 and banned from hunting in the Yukon for at least 10 years.

The 74-year-old Kluane First Nation beneficiary was described by his lawyer as a Vietnam vet, with "old school" attitudes.

Martin admitted he guided American friends in the Kluane Game Sanctuary, an area just outside Kluane National Park, then smuggled their trophies to the United States. He was convicted on Friday of sheep and moose kills in the sanctuary. 

Yukon authorities say they were suspicious of his cross border trips for almost 20 years. In 2002 they teamed up with Alaska officials on an investigation that produced dozens of hunting and smuggling charges on both sides of the border.

His lawyer said border authorities won't let him back into Canada so there's little chance he'll be poaching again in the Yukon.

Martin has already been convicted and sentenced in Alaska.

Illegal trophy still in Alaska

Yukon conservation officers are still working to have one of the illegal trophies returned to the Yukon.

Ryan Hennings, who manages the Environment Yukon conservation branch, wants to repatriate a trophy ram currently on display at the Haines Bald Eagle Foundation museum.

"The person that currently has possession of that wildlife has not been very forthcoming and not been co-operative in having that returned so there are some legal challenges in getting that back to Canada," he says.

Hennings says the poached sheep was killed in Kluane National Park, and Martin donated it to the museum.