Turtle trafficker in SoCal gets 30 months in prison for smuggling protect species to Hong Kong
A Hong Kong man was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison Friday for smuggling a protect turtles species after wildlife inspectors found the animals inside packages at a Southern California mail facility.
Sai Keung Tin, also known as Ricky Tin, was arrested upon arriving to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City in February 2024, and on March 8, 2024, a grand jury indicted him on four counts of exporting merchandise contrary to law. In June 2023, inspectors found four packages containing 40 eastern box turtles and intercepted them at an international mail facility in Torrance.
He pleaded guilty to all four federal charges in the case in December, admitting to the aiding and abetting of turtle smuggles in the U.S. between February 2018 and June 2023, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said the packages were falsely labeled as containing almonds and chocolate cookies, with three of the boxes containing between eight and 12 live turtles each, all of them bound in socks to restrict their movements so they would go undetected. The last of the four packages had seven live eastern box turtles and one dead one inside.
Tin was associated with international turtle smuggler Kang Juntao, a resident of Hangzhou City, China who was extradited in 2019 from Malaysia and imprisoned for money laundering. Federal authorities said he was involved in the trafficking of at least 1,500 turtles — worth an estimated $2.25 million — from the U.S. to Hong Kong.
He and Tin primarily trafficked the eastern box turtle, a subspecies of the common box turtle which is native to the U.S., according to prosecutors. Smuggling the species across international borders is illegal under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
Federal agents obtained a search warrant to go through Tin's cellphones and later found evidence suggesting he came to the U.S. to smuggle the protected species, with plants to travel to states including Texas, New Jersey and Washington, according to prosecutors, who said he would familiarize himself with tourist attractions he could mention when lying to investigators later.
"His ultimate plan was to pay for turtles in cash, ship turtles around the country, and eventually, illegally export them to Hong Kong," reads a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice Friday. "He had detailed information on how to soak turtles to reduce odors and bind them in socks with tape, all to avoid detection."
