If you are a judge handling and weighing 16 inch walleye all day and suddenly you you have three that are twice as heavy as anything you’ve handled then alarm bells should be going off. Which, as you said, is almost certainly how these guys got caught. They got greedy and used too much weight.
I think it is safe to say these two will need to find another line of work or weekend hobby...
They only had to finish in the top 11 to claim the prize. I could understand 1-12oz weight but 4-5 per fish! Plus it sounds like their fish would have one without the added weights.
F’them and feed the fish heads! I hope they go to jail for several years