A New York resident has admitted to attempting to smuggle protected turtles, valued at more than $1 million, from the United States to Hong Kong, concealing them in boxes falsely labelled as "plastic animal toys".
Wei Qiang Lin, a Chinese national who lives in Brooklyn, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in New York to attempting to export more than 220 parcels containing around 850 eastern box turtles and three-toed box turtles, according to the US Justice Department.
The turtles, with an estimated market value of $1.4 million, were intercepted by law enforcement at a border inspection, prosecutors said.
Officers saw them bound and taped inside knotted socks within the shipping boxes.
Eastern box turtles and three-toed box turtles feature colorful markings and are a “prized feature” in the domestic and foreign pet market, particularly in China and Hong Kong, prosecutors said.
The two turtle species, heavily smuggled in the 1990s, are now protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
Their trade is only permissible with export permits or re-export certificates. The eastern box turtle is also deemed vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Lin also shipped 11 other parcels filled with reptiles, including venomous snakes, prosecutors said. He faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced on 23 December.
