Man admits trying to smuggle 850 protected turtles valued at $1.4 million to Hong Kong

NEW YORK — A New York resident has admitted he tried to smuggle protected turtles worth more than $1 million from the United States to Hong Kong by shipping them in boxes labeled “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 U.S. 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 reptiles are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Lin also shipped 11 other parcels filled with reptiles, including venomous snakes, prosecutors said. He faces up to five years in prison when he's sentenced Dec. 23.