Hong Kong man pleads guilty to trafficking endangered turtles from Southern California to China
A Hong Kong man pleaded guilty Friday to trafficking eastern box turtles from Southern California to China after wildlife inspectors discovered the endangered animals inside packages at a Torrance mail facility.
Sai Keung Tin admitted to four federal counts of exporting merchandise contrary to law for falsely labeling the packages as containing almonds and chocolate cookies, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California. Instead, three of the packages had between eight and 12 live turtles inside, with all of them bound in socks as they were shipped, court records state.
Prosecutors said he had the packages addressed to the name "Ji Yearlong," believed to be one of his aliases, with the turtles bound for his home in Hong Kong.
He has illegally assisted in the exportation of 40 eastern box turtles to China, according to prosecutors, who say he was associated with Kang Juntao, a 27-year-old convicted felon and international turtle smuggler from Hangzhou City, China. Kang had turtle poachers in the U.S. ship the animals domestically to middlemen who would then package and send them to Hong Kong.
The turtle species is protected against smuggling by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, a treaty restricting their movement across international borders, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
"Turtles have long been targets of the wildlife trade, whether for food, medicine, or increasingly as status symbols, valued by wealthy collectors for their novelty and beauty," an article published by the federal agency states.
Federal wildlife officials say the turtles can potentially spread ranavirus, an infectious disease among reptiles and amphibians that can be contracted by humans and lead to symptoms such as congestion and fever.
The eastern box turtle is native to the U.S. and some other parts of North America, according to the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.
