According to court documents presented earlier this year, Schubarth and at least five other collaborators began conspiring in 2013 to purchase parts of dead male Marco Polo argali sheep (Ovis ammon polii) from sellers in Kyrgyzstan. Over the next eight years, Schubarth successfully sent genetic material from the world’s largest sheep species to a lab in a bid to create cloned embryos. These embryos were then artificially inseminated into ewes from a variety of (also very illegal) species to create numerous hybrid offspring. During that time, at least two sheep contracted and died from Johne’s disease—a contagious, chronic wasting disease that spreads both directly between animals, or indirectly through contaminated environments.
Eventually, however, one ewe produced a single, pure genetic Marco Polo argali that Schubarth nicknamed “Montana Mountain King,” or MMK. From there, MMK then bred with more ewes to create big game sheep even larger than than the average Marco Polo argali male, which easily weighs more than 300 lbs, stands 49-inches at the shoulder, and sports horns that span over five-feet-wide. MMK’s semen was also sold to breeders in other states. Sheep containing just 25-percent Marco Polo argali DNA fetched $15,000-per-head, while animals produced by MMK’s son, Montana Black Magic, sold for $10,000 each.
