BRIDGTON (AP) – Game wardens arrested four people and charged 11 others Monday night for running what wardens called a poaching ring in western Maine.

The arrests were the culmination of a two-year investigation. Wardens confiscated firearms, deer meat, bear parts, bear meat and illegal drugs after serving search warrants at 10 locations simultaneously in Maine and New Hampshire.

Maj. Thomas Santaguida of the Maine Warden Service said the men are accused of killing deer, bear and other wildlife at night, out of season, on posted land, on roads, from cars and by driving deer in large groups.

“It was clear that this group felt that the state’s fish and wildlife laws did not apply to them, and they killed whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted,” Santaguida said. “Yet they felt they were smart enough not to get caught because they didn’t poach deer in certain areas at certain times.”

The warden service identified those arrested as Ernest Perreault Jr., 44, of Brownfield; Randy Burnell, 42, of Brownfield; Lawrence Perry, 55, of Fryeburg; and Stephen Bennett, 34, of Lovell.

Summons were issued to nine men and two women from Brownfield, Fryeburg, Lovell, Denmark and Conway, N.H. Charges include exceeding bag limits on deer, night hunting, driving deer, unlawful bear hunting with dogs, illegal transportation of deer and hunting from a vehicle.

Wardens said the ring was organized in that periodically a dozen or more people would go out into the woods together to drive groups of deer through the woods to a group of waiting hunters. The groups would use two-way radios to coordinate their actions.

Officials said one of the men charged said that he had shot and killed six deer before the season started, and another said he shot deer in his backyard at night from a window.

Dead deer were transported in car trunks, in boxes, or under brush to avoid detection, officials said.

The investigation was headed by the Maine Warden Service. More than 50 wardens were assisted by federal, county, state and New Hampshire officers in executing the search warrants Monday.

AP-ES-12-15-03 2150EST