Smuggled turtles were labeled as toys. Now, a man pleads guilty.
Wei Qiang Lin of Brooklyn pleaded guilty to "falsely labeling live turtles as fake toys" and "exporting them in delivery boxes on a weeks-long journey to Hong Kong," the Department of Justice said in an Aug. 11 news release.
Lin exported approximately 222 parcels containing around 850 turtles valued at $1.4 million between August 2023 and November 2024, according to court records. He labeled the boxes as containing "plastic animal toys," among other objects, the news release said. Lin is also accused of exporting "11 other parcels filled with reptiles including venomous snakes."
Turtles were hidden in socks
Law enforcement found the turtles "bound and taped inside knotted socks" in the shipping boxes during a border inspection. Packing them this way restricts their movement, so they can pass undetected.
According to the news release, "Lin primarily shipped eastern box turtles and three-toed box turtles, native U.S. species which feature colorful markings — a prized feature in the domestic and foreign pet market, particularly in China and Hong Kong."
Both turtle species are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), according to the DOJ, after tens of thousands of box turtles were illegally exported every year during the 1990s. China and the United States are both parties to CITES.
Lin is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 23.
"He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the gain or loss from the illegal activity," the news release said, adding Lin also "agreed to abandon any property interest in the reptiles seized during the investigation," as part of his plea.
In March, a Chinese citizen named Sai Keung Tin was sentenced to 30 months in prison for smuggling more than 2,000 turtles from the United States to Hong Kong over about five years, federal prosecutors said. Wildlife inspectors had seized the packages, falsely labeled as containing almonds and chocolate cookies, at an international mail facility in Torrance, California, USA TODAY previously reported.
Multiple federal and local law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Customs and Border Protection, investigated the case, the news release said.
More news: Cocaine is still being smuggled in banana containers; Greek sting shows
What are eastern box turtles?
Eastern box turtles, a subspecies of common box turtle, are native to forest regions in the eastern United States, and they make up some isolated populations in the Midwest, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife.
While the eastern box turtle is not considered an endangered species nationally, some states — including Michigan, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut — have listed it as a species of special concern, according to the National Wildlife Federation. The species is considered endangered in Maine.
The National Wildlife Federation said several factors, such as habitat loss, traffic incidents and pet trade, have contributed to the species' decline.
Latest wildlife smuggling incident
People have also been caught sneaking live turtles through security at international airports across the country.
In April, Transportation Security Administration officials in Florida intercepted a woman trying to sneak two turtles past the security checkpoint at Miami International Airport by stuffing them in her bra, the agency said in a July 24 LinkedIn post. While one of the turtles did not survive the ordeal, the other was confiscated and turned over to the Florida Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Earlier in March, a Pennsylvania man attempted to sneak a live red-ear slider turtle in the crotch area of his pants at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.
The man, who was not identified by name, triggered an alarm while doing a body scan on March 7, according to TSA. He then pulled out a live turtle wrapped in a towel out of his pants.
"Wildlife trafficking is the fourth largest organized crime in the world, after drug trafficking, counterfeiting, and human trafficking," according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Contributing: Thao Nguyen, Amaris Encinas, Julia Gomez, and Max Augugliaro, USA TODAY
Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘Jeffrey Epstein is dead. Ghislaine Maxwell is not': Sex trafficker fights DOJ move to unseal grand jury records
Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein who after his death was convicted of sex trafficking girls and young women as his accomplice, is opposing the government's requests to unseal the grand jury transcripts in her criminal case. The Trump administration has been firefighting the fallout from the so-called 'Epstein Files' since the DOJ released a memo last month that contained little new information and concluded no further investigation was warranted into the late sex offender's alleged sex trafficking scheme. Since the uproar, which has included Republican lawmakers and many from his MAGA base, President Donald Trump asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to make public 'any and all pertinent' grand jury transcripts in the Epstein and Maxwell criminal cases. Experts say these documents only account for a small fraction of the files related to the investigations. The grand jury transcripts are sealed, and Maxwell's attorneys say she wants to keep them that way as she continues to make appeals to the Trump administration to toss or lessen her prison sentence. The 63-year-old is serving 20 years after being convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking and other counts for her role in the scheme to sexually exploit and abuse teenage girls and young women with Epstein. Her attorneys have taken an appeal of her conviction to the Supreme Court. 'Jeffrey Epstein is dead. Ghislaine Maxwell is not,' Maxwell's attorneys wrote in a Tuesday filing. The public interest in the Epstein case 'cannot justify a broad intrusion into grand jury secrecy in a case where the defendant is alive, her legal options are viable, and her due process rights remain.' The Supreme Court will consider whether to take up her appeal in September. If the judge allowed the transcripts to be unsealed before then, her lawyers argued, the documents could impact any future litigation. Releasing the raw transcripts would 'inevitably influence any future legal proceeding' and cause 'severe and irrevocable' reputational harm, her attorneys said. Maxwell has never been allowed to review the documents. Her lawyers asked the court to deny the government's motion to unseal the transcripts. The judges overseeing the cases previously asked the government to address legal questions before they can consider releasing them. On Monday, the DOJ gave the judges annotated versions of the transcripts, identifying what information is not publicly available. However in an attached memo, Bondi admitted that 'much' of the information in the transcripts is already in the public domain. 'The enclosed, annotated transcripts show that much of the information provided during the course of the grand jury testimony—with the exception of the identities of certain victims and witnesses—was made publicly available at trial or has otherwise been publicly reported through the public statements of victims and witnesses,' Bondi wrote. The attorney general also noted that the government has provided notice about its requests to unseal transcripts to all but one of the victims referenced in the documents. 'The Government still has been unable to contact that remaining victim,' she wrote. After meeting with the DOJ last week, Maxwell was moved from a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida to the Federal Prison Camp Bryan in southeast Texas. The Florida prison was classified as a minimum security prison, where she was detained in an 'honor dorm' for the best-behaved inmates, and activities included yoga and pilates. The Texas prison mainly houses those convicted of 'white-collar' crimes and minor offenses and boasts a sports field, gym, arts and crafts activities, and a theater program. Earlier this week, two of Epstein's victims criticized the Trump administration's handling of the case. The victims remained anonymous and filed their letters in the New York case related to the late pedophile. 'The latest attention on the 'Epstein Files', the 'Client List' is OUT OF CONTROL and the ones that are left to suffer are not the high-profile individuals, IT IS THE VICTIMS. Why the lack of concern in handling such sensitive information for the victims sake?' one wrote in a Monday filing. Another wrote: 'Dear United States, I wish you would have handled and would handle the whole 'Epstein Files' with more respect towards and for the victims. I am not some pawn in your political warfare.' Furor has mounted over the administration's handling of the case since the Justice Department released its July 6 Epstein memo. In it, the DOJ confirmed that Epstein died by suicide and said there was no evidence to support the existence of a 'client list' of high-profile individuals involved in his alleged sex trafficking. The memo put to an end months-long anticipation for new Epstein information. In February, Bondi had released 'Phase 1' of the files, a tranche of documents that included mostly publicly available information. She also suggested that the 'client list'was sitting on her desk. Parts of Trump's MAGA base and prominent lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for heightened transparency around the Epstein files. Those calls grew louder after the Wall Street Journal published a report last month claiming that the president drew a sexually suggestive 50th birthday card for Epstein in 2003. Trump has vehemently denied making the card and sued the Journal in a $10 billion defamation case. The Wall Street Journal also reported that DOJ officials told the president in May that his name, among many others, had appeared in the Epstein Files. Being named in the files does not suggest any wrongdoing. The president's name was reportedly redacted from documents as the administration prepared for their potential public release, Bloomberg reported last week. The Trump administration has declared itself the 'most transparent' in history.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
$216K in rare Chinese manuscripts dating to 13th century stolen from UCLA
A 38-year-old man from the Bay Area, who went by at least three aliases, managed to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of rare historical Chinese manuscripts dating back to the 13th century from the University of California, Los Angeles' library, federal officials announced. In a U.S. Department of Justice news release, federal prosecutors allege that Jeffrey Ying, who also went by the names Jason Wang, Alan Fujimori and Austin Cheng, stole the manuscripts between Dec. 2024 and July 2025. Because of their value and rarity, UCLA does not keep the books in regular circulation, requiring a reservation to check them out. The 38-year-old, a resident of Fremont, a city some 20 miles north of San Jose, reportedly took advantage of a relatively new system at the library where users can apply for library cards and rent books without having to show official identification, the Los Angeles Times reported. Ying allegedly checked out the manuscripts in groups and would then reportedly return 'dummy books,' sometimes low-value Chinese manuscripts or blank books containing labels printed with a computer with tags meant to appear like that of the authentic books. UCLA officials were alerted to some of the missing books by the head of the university's East Asian Library. Library policy, The Times reported, requires a staff member to be present in the reading room while someone reads books from special collections. There were, however, no specific rules around reviewing rare books returned to the library to ensure their authenticity. Ying would then reportedly place 'dummy books' in a box taken to a reading room in UCLA's Charles E. Young Research Library and leave with the originals. While the arrest and FBI affidavit reviewed by The Times focuses primarily on thefts last year, it is believed that Ying may have been stealing valuable manuscripts as far back as 2020 and may be responsible for stealing at least 10 missing manuscripts valued between $274 and $70,000. Six books were checked out under the alias Jason Wang, while on Aug. 5 of this year another eight were requested under the name Austin Chen. Yet another one of Ying's alleged aliases, Alan Fujimori, was reportedly associated with similar thefts from U.C. Berkeley library. Ultimately, according to The Times, it was surveillance footage analysis that tied the aliases to Ying. Out-of-control driver plows into 4 vehicles in Southern California; 2 dead, 4 injured Federal investigators also say the 38-year-old regularly traveled to China just days after the alleged thefts, likely in an attempt to sell the books or to simply get them out of the United States. Ying was arrested Aug. 6 as he was attempting to leave for China, according to federal prosecutors. Investigators found a fake California ID under the name Austin Chen and two library cards using the names Austin Chen and Jason Wang in his Brentwood hotel room. He has since been charged with theft of major artwork, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison. Considered a flight risk, Ying remains in state custody and is due to appear in U.S. District Court in L.A. in the coming days. The official number of rare and valuable manuscripts the 38-year-old may have stolen is unknown and, at least so far, it does not appear as if authorities have recovered them. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
Axios
6 hours ago
- Axios
Ex-New Mexico state candidate gets 80 years for shootings at Dems' homes
Solomon Peña, an unsuccessful New Mexico state House candidate, was sentenced to 80 years in prison Wednesday "for orchestrating a politically motivated shooting spree and plotting to murder witnesses to obstruct justice," the Justice Department announced. The big picture: A federal jury in March found the 42-year-old guilty of of all charges related to the drive-by shootings targeting the homes and offices of elected state state Democratic officials in N.M. in December 2022 and January 2023. Peña, who ran for the House District 14 seat in the 2022 midterms, was convicted of 13 charges. These included conspiracy, firearms charges, four counts of intimidation and interference with federally protected activities, per a Department of Justice statement Wednesday. Driving the news: "After his electoral defeat, Peña falsely claimed the election was rigged and began pressuring members of the Bernalillo County Board of Commissioners not to certify the results," per the statement. He recruited accomplices Jose Trujillo and Demetrio Trujillo to carry out the shootings after the commissioners refused his demands, the DOJ said. "One of the shootings involved a fully automatic machine gun. Multiple rounds struck areas of the homes where children had recently been or were sleeping," the statement noted. "Following his arrest, Peña attempted to have Jose and Demetrio Trujillo murdered to prevent them from testifying, offering fellow inmates money and a vehicle in exchange for their deaths." Zoom in: Jose Trujillo previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy, interference with federally protected activities and other charges including firearms offenses and was sentenced to 37 months in prison, according to the DOJ. Demetrio Trujillo pleaded guilty to similar charges and was sentenced to 180 months in prison. For the record: The court in Albuquerque ordered Peña to pay restitution and a $250,000 fine. "Upon his release from prison, Peña will be subject to three years of supervised release," the DOJ said.
