Detroit airport customs officials were surprised when they searched the luggage of a man about to board a flight for China last week.
Stuffed into cereal boxes and rubber boots were 1007 baby turtles, some of which are on the endangered list.
The Detroit News reports that two Canadians, Lihua Lin of Toronto, Ontario, and Kai Xu of Windsor, Ontario were arrested last week in connection with the wildlife smuggling.
The turtles, most of which were less than a month old, included more than 750 diamondback terrapins,along with Kwangtung river turtles, spotted turtles, wood turtles, Blanding’s turtles, red-eared sliders and African spur-thighed tortoises.
Lihua Lin was arrested at the airport. He said Xu paid for his round trip ticket to Shanghai along with $500 and a promise of $2000 upon his return. Xu was arrested later. The Windsor Star newspaper says both men are charged with smuggling goods, illegal trading of endangered species, and exporting wildlife.
Some of the turtles “not doing well”
U Fish and Wildlife officials have sent them to the Detroit Zoo where Scott Carter, the zoo’s chief life sciences officer said, “The conditions of the turtles vary. It isn’t surprising that some are not doing well given the way they were being smuggled”.
Although some of the species are listed as “at risk” and others “endangered” the turtles are now unlikely to ever be released in the wild. A USFAW agent says once in captivity they are exposed to humans and other animals and can become carriers of disease.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Woodward gave rare insight into a lucrative, international smuggling ring allegedly headed by Ontario resident Kai Xu that operated in at least three countries.
The US magistrate ordered Xu held without bond after Woodward told the judge Xu had lied about enrolling as a student at the University of Waterloo. She alleged that Xu is a full-time reptile smuggler.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Special Agent Mona Iannelli said wood turtles and Blandings turtles would be worth up to $500 each, with the Kwangtung turtles fetching up to $1,800 each in the US and three times that much in China. She told the judge the species was almost extinct in Asia, and that the shipment would have been worth about $30,000 on the black market.
She also noted that an arrest by Canadian authorities in August didn’t stop Xu.
He was arrested by Canadian border agents at the Detroit-Windsor border and charged with smuggling 51 turtles into Canada in his pants last month. He is also facing Canadian charges of smuggling in that incident.
Xu could face a maximum of ten years in prison on the US charges.
The turtles in this latest incident, currently being cared for at the Detroit Zoo, are considered evidence in an investigation that could take months, after which the USFAW will find permanent homes for them.
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