A Chinese man faces up to five years in prison for trying to smuggle protected turtles worth more than US$1 million from the United States to Hong Kong.
Wei Qiang Lin, of Brooklyn, pleaded guilty on Monday in a federal district court in New York to exporting more than 220 parcels containing around 850 eastern box turtles and three-toed box turtles.
The Justice Department said the live turtles had been wrapped in socks for the weeks-long journey and the boxes with the reptiles had been labelled as containing “plastic animal toys”.
The turtles, which had a market value of US$1.4 million, were intercepted by police at a border inspection, it said.
Eastern box turtles and three-toed box turtles feature colourful markings and are a “prized feature in the domestic and foreign pet market, particularly in China and Hong Kong”, the Justice Department said in a statement.
It said they are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
