Man caught smuggling 850 turtles worth £1million into Hong Kong in socks

A man is facing jail in the USA after trying to smuggle 850 turtles worth around £1m intoHong Kong.

Wei Qiang Lin, who lives in Brooklyn,New York, is accused of "falsely labelling live turtles as fake toys" prior to exporting them in delivery boxes on a weeks-long journey to Hong Kong, the US department of justice has said.

Court records state that "between August 2023 and November 2024, Lin exported to Hong Kong approximately 222 parcels containing around 850 turtles, but he labeled the boxes as containing 'plastic animal toys,' among other things'. It comes after an octopus 'climbs out of aquarium tank' and 'tries to eat boy, 6,' in front of his mum.

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Officials "intercepted the turtles during a border inspection and found them bound and taped inside knotted socks within the shipping boxes," a statement said. It added that Lin had "also exported 11 other parcels filled with reptiles, including venomous snakes".

The boxes contained eastern box turtles and three-toed box turtles, which are native species to the USA, and feature colourful markings. The statement said the markings make the animals "a prized feature in the domestic and foreign pet market, particularly in China and Hong Kong".

The Department of Justice added that "both are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) as a result of the illegal export of tens of thousands of box turtles every year during the 1990s."

Lin pleaded guilty in US District Court for the Western District of New York for falsely labelling live turtles as fake toys before exporting them. Lin "faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000 (£184,000) or twice the gain or loss from the illegal activity".

Lin is scheduled to be sentenced on December 23. "As part of his plea, Lin also agreed to abandon any property interest in the reptiles seized during the investigation," the DOJ said.

The case was investigated by the US Fish and WIldlife Service, with help from federal and local law enforcement including Customs and Border Protection, Postal Inspections Service and Homeland Security Investigations.

It comes after Chinese national Sai Keung Tin, also known as Ricky Tin, was sentenced to 30 months in prison in March for smuggling more than 2,100 eastern box turtles. The animals were also hidden in socks, packaged in boxes labeled as almonds and chocolate cookies. At the time, authorities estimated that each turtle could have been sold for $2,000 (£1,472), meaning the total value of the smuggled reptiles came to a whopping $4.2million (£3million).