A Chinese national living in Brooklyn tried to smuggle $1.4 million worth of protected turtles out of the United States — by passing them off as “plastic animal toys,” prosecutors said Monday.
Wei Qiang Lin worked to ship 222 packages of about 850 turtles to Hong Kong for more than a year leading up to November 2024 before his clandestine operation was brought to a halt, the Department of Justice said.
Lin mostly shipped eastern box turtles and three-toed turtles, which both have colorful markings that make them attractive on the domestic and foreign pet markets but are protected species by international trade rules, according to prosecutors.
Law enforcement at JFK Airport in Queens found 106 of the turtles bound and taped inside knotted socks, and some were even wrapped in diapers, between August 2023 and October 2023, according to a criminal complaint.
Over the next year, another 608 of turtles, as well as seven venomous snakes and 28 lizards, being smuggled by Lin were also intercepted by authorities at the Big Apple airport, the feds said.
The parcels were falsely labeled “plastic animal toys,” according to prosecutors.
Only a handful of the illicit packages from Lin snuck through to Hong Kong during his 15-month scheme, which ended after authorities conducted undercover sales, according to the complaint.
He copped the scheme and is expected to be sentenced Dec. 23. He could face as much as five years in prison and a fine as high as $250,000.
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