ANCHORAGE, Alaska | 
 
 ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Two Alaskans pleaded guilty on Friday to illegally buying and selling hundreds of pounds of walrus tusks in what prosecutors described as Alaska's biggest wildlife-trafficking case in nearly 20 years. 
 
 The pair, along with a third defendant scheduled to plead guilty next week, were arrested in April on charges of trading cash, guns, cigarettes and at least one snowmobile for around 1,000 pounds of raw walrus ivory and other animal parts. 
 
 They obtained the materials by trading with Yup'ik Eskimo hunters from the impoverished village of Savoonga, located on an island in the Bering Strait, according to court documents. 
 
 Under federal law, only Alaska Natives may harvest walruses, whales, polar bears and other marine mammals, and only for traditional subsistence purposes. 
 
 Federal law forbids any sale of raw animal parts from marine mammals, though Alaska Natives are permitted to sell finished works of art crafted from animal parts. 
 
 A trial for all three defendants had been slated to start this week over a trafficking conspiracy that involved tusks from an estimated 100 walruses, along with skulls, bones and hides of polar bears and whales, court documents said. 
 
 Jesse Leboeuf, of Glennallen, Alaska, pleaded guilty to five of the 15 counts against him, including weapons charges as well as wildlife-trafficking offenses. 
 
 In return, prosecutors agreed to the dismissal of 10 other counts and a nine-year prison sentence followed by three years of supervised release. Under the original indictment returned in April, he had faced up to 65 years in prison if convicted. 
 
 The second defendant, Richard Weshenfelder of Anchorage, admitted to helping sell the walrus ivory over the Internet and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act, a federal statute that protects wildlife. 
 
 The third defendant, Loretta Sternbach of Glennallen, was scheduled to plead guilty at a hearing on Tuesday, according to court documents. 
 
 As part of their plea deals, Leboeuf and Sternbach had one unusual request -- they hope to become legally married before being sent away to serve their federal sentences. 
 
 The two have been living together as a couple for 24 years, Leboeuf told the judge, but if they are not legally married they might not be allowed to correspond with each other from separate federal prisons. 
 
 "We got a 22-year-old son and a grandson now. We've never been apart," he told the judge. 
 
 U.S. District Judge Tim Burgess said he will try to accommodate the marriage plans in time for the scheduled November 4 sentencing. 
 
 (Editing by Steve Gorman and Cynthia Johnston) ||||| TRAFFICKING: A third defendant set to enter a similar plea Tuesday. 
 
 Two men charged with trading in hundreds of pounds of walrus tusks and two polar bear hides admitted in court Friday to breaking federal marine mammal laws. A third member of the alleged conspiracy is set to enter a guilty plea Tuesday. 
 
 In April, prosecutors accused Glennallen residents Jesse James LeBoeuf, 47, and his longtime companion Loretta Audrey Sternbach, 52, of trading cigarettes, guns, snowmachines and other items to Natives in the Saint Lawrence Island village of Savoonga in exchange for federally protected animal parts. 
 
 Assistant U.S. Attorney Yvonne Lamoureux declined to comment on the possibility of charges for the ivory suppliers. By law, only Natives living on the Alaska coast can hunt the mammals, and they can't sell the raw ivory to private collectors. 
 
 "The investigation is ongoing," she said. 
 
 Anchorage resident Richard Blake Weshenfelder, 50, helped the couple advertise and sell the parts online to out-of-state buyers. 
 
 According to documents filed in court after the couple's April 26 arrest, federal agents found about 20 guns -- including an illegal machine gun -- 30 marijuana plants and some coca plants at their Glennallen home. They were charged with buying more than 500 pounds of walrus ivory and two polar bear hides during trips to Savoonga in 2010 and 2011 and illegally selling the animal parts. 
 
 LeBoeuf and Weshenfelder accepted plea deals Friday; Sternbach is scheduled for a change of plea hearing on Tuesday. 
 
 Prosecutors are asking for a sentence of nine years in prison for LeBoeuf, who also faces one count of possessing firearms as a felon. Weshenfelder faces up to five years and a $250,000 fine. All three defendants are expected to be sentenced in November. 
 
 During Friday's hearing, LeBoeuf answered questions for U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Burgess, who wanted to know if LeBoeuf understood the many implications of his guilty plea. 
 
 "Sir, I just did what I did to get along in life," LeBoeuf told the judge. 
 
 Was LeBoeuf satisfied with the legal advice from his court-appointed attorney, M.J. Haden? the judge asked. 
 
 "Yes, and she's still helping me so my wife and I can get married," LeBoeuf answered. 
 
 While they'd been together for 24 years, the two had never legally wed, LeBoeuf explained later. He worried that once they were imprisoned, their correspondence by mail would be blocked if they weren't married. 
 
 Haden asked the judge to set the couple's sentencing on the same day, so they could be married soon after, she said. Burgess agreed. 
 
 In the meantime, Haden hoped a court order or letter from the judge would allow Le-Boeuf and Sternbach to continue writing letters to each other. 
 
 Burgess asked his clerk to find out what he needed to do to help the couple "consummate" their marriage, quickly noting that he'd chosen the wrong word. 
 
 "Yeah, we did that a long time ago," Le-Boeuf said, to brief laughter in the courtroom. 
 
 Reach Casey Grove at casey.grove@adn.com or 257-4589.
– Huge quantities of walrus tusks and a pair of polar bear hides were among the illegal goods sold by two Alaskans who have pleaded guilty to violating federal marine mammal laws. A third person is expected to plead guilty next week. Authorities say two of the three spent years traveling back and forth to Saint Lawrence Island to trade cigarettes, guns, and snowmobiles with Eskimo villagers in exchange for federally protected animal parts, the Anchorage Daily News reports. The third accomplice then helped sell the parts online. All face serious jail time for illegally trafficking in hundreds of pounds of raw walrus ivory in what Reuters calls the biggest such case in Alaska in 20 years. The Eskimo villagers can legally hunt walrus, and it's not clear yet whether any will face charges for supplying the ivory. When asked by the judge if he understood the implications of his guilty plea, Jesse James LeBoeuf responded, "Sir, I just did what I did to get along in life."