‘Swamp People’ star Troy Landry charged in Gator Sting operation

Gator Hunter and “Swamp people” personality Troy Landry, 63, was charged on September 19 with two counts of failing to tag an alligator after being caught in a sting operation by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. The LDWF law enforcement office had received an anonymous call the day before tipping off unauthorized alligator lines with white flags at Lake Palourde in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, according to an incident report obtained by Outdoor living.

Sergeants Jake Darden and Harry Gaines arrived at Lake Palourde at 6:30 a.m. on September 19 to stake out the area. Upon their arrival, they found the lines the tipster had mentioned on the phone. (The tipster had claimed that he and his friend were the only ones allowed to lay alligator lines on the lake.) A live 7- to 8-foot alligator was hooked onto one of the lines in question.

It was not until 1:43 p.m. that yacht watchers saw a ship approaching the lines from their hidden deployment spot. Landry was in the boat, along with a second suspect, a 28-year-old woman who LDWF officials declined to name due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, and an unidentified cameraman. The guards watched as the second suspect raised the leash and told Landry that the alligator was “a good one” and that he should get the spear. Landry then speared the alligator and the duo pulled it onto the boat and sent it flying. At this point the gamekeepers left their stake and approached the boat.

When the guards greeted Landry and the other suspects, Landry responded that “they were doing well and were just scouting.” He also told officers he had permission to hunt on his property, which the game wardens confirmed (contrary to the tipster’s claim) with a phone call to the property owner.

“Mr. Landry stated that all alligators on the vessel at the time were from the Atchafalaya Basin area and were tagged as such,” Gaines wrote in the report. “I collected the tag numbers of each alligator to confirm which area the tags were assigned to. I confirmed that none of the tag numbers matched the tags assigned for this area… “

That’s when Gaines read Landry and his companion their Miranda rights.

“I asked Mr. Landry about the alligator we saw him take with him [off] the first alligator line,” Gaines writes. “Mr. Landry stated that they did not take an alligator from the property. After proving to him that we were watching the entire time, Mr. Landry admitted that he had taken the alligator from this area, but could not find the tags gifted to him for this hunt. Unable to find the right tags, he tagged the alligator [a tag good in Iberville Parish]. Mr. Landry also admitted that before officers contacted him, he cut a dead, ‘stiff’ alligator loose from his line and allowed it to float away.”

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After ticketing Landry and his companion and confiscating the boat, motor and alligator, the guards found the dead alligator in question. It had the same type of line that Landry used, floating from his mouth. The untagged alligator did not appear to have been recovered, but LDWF was able to sell the incorrectly tagged alligator.

Not tagging an alligator is one class four misdemeanor in Louisiana. It carries a sentence of up to 120 days in jail and $950 in fines. Landry will appear in court for a civil restitution hearing on November 20 and in criminal court on January 25. Landry told the local news station WAFB TV that he had “nothing to say” about the charges, adding: “I also got a ticket last month but I have nothing to say about it.”

“’King of the Swamp’ Troy Landry is one of the most famous and fearless alligator hunters in the bayou,” according to Landry’s cast bio on the History Channel. “As the son of a fisherman and seafood distributor, Troy has alligator hunting in his blood. It consistently fills more tags than any swampland in Louisiana.