7 arrested for illegal saw palmetto berry harvesting

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced the arrest of seven men on Wednesday for allegedly picking saw palmetto berries without permission.

Isreal Reyes Flores, Esvin Jimenez, Manuel Vazquez Gonzalez, Giovanni Lopez Sanchez, Alfredo Gomez, Oscar Mendez Perez and Abraham Jimenez Sanchez were arrested.

• RELATED: Man accused of illegal saw palmetto berry harvesting; 1st arrest of season

Harvesters in Hendry County also found more than $5,000 worth of berries left in the bushes, waiting to be picked up.

Here on WINK, we told you how the state’s new law escalated the offense of stealing these berries from a misdemeanor to a third-degree felony, but people are still swiping them.

There is no way to stop the thefts, but when speaking with a harvester, they do what they can to catch them using drones and cameras. When the thieves are in action, they typically hide the berries they are trying to steal under trees.

A harvester called us and explained how they found more than 5,000 pounds of berries worth close to $5,500.

Hidden and ready to be loaded up, they weren’t even ripe yet.

They said with harvest season so close they needed to stay anonymous to protect their identity and land from more potential raiders.

“My cell phone camera went off at 10:30 at night, and we had a vehicle drive by,” the harvester said.

This is a red flag to these harvesters. They went outside around 2 a.m. and said they potentially scared the thieves off, but not before they finished picking the berries.

“These berries were nowhere near ready, and they need at least another 2 to 3 weeks on them before they are mature,” the harvester said.

We asked if they knew how they did it.

“They go out there and drop 10, 15, 20 people off, and five of them will be coaters; the rest will be pickers. They will go around and find a big clump of bushes where no one will
ever expect and put 10 or 15,000 pounds under some oak trees,” the harvester said.

This begs the question of if they are hidden, how do they come back and find the berries?

“These jokers are slick. Sometimes, it will just be a water bottle stuck on a tree limb, and only one other person knows that marker or it may be a sock lying on the side of the
road.”

Since they found the berries, we asked what happened next. The harvester said they are now on the lookout for the mystery truck.

“Oh, absolutely. He’s a done deal. Trust me, as soon as we see him, I promise.”

As the harvester said, these thieves are sneaky; they will put carpet under their shoes to not leave footprints and even use a palm tree leaf to wipe away prints if they left them. We asked if they planned to do anything differently after this happened.

They say there isn’t much they can do but watch.