A woman who wanted to smuggle turtles across a lake and into Canada by hiding the creatures using socks in a duffle bag has pleaded guilty to a smuggling charge.
Wan Yee Ng was arrested in June in Vermont as she was about to enter an inflatable kayak with the bag of 29 eastern box turtles and paddle across Lake Wallace to the border with Canada, according to an affidavit filed in federal court.
Eastern box turtles are a protected species and have vivid, orange and yellow markings atop a dark brown shell. They are sold on the black market in China for $1,000, the Associated Press reported.
Ng pleaded guilty to a single count of attempting to smuggle eastern box turtles and faces up to 10 years in prison and as much as a $250,000 fine.
On 26 June, as Ng prepared to enter the kayak in Vermont, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police notified border patrol agents that two other individuals had launched an inflatable watercraft on the Canadian side of the lake. The two turned out to be Ng’s husband and another person.
Lake Wallace is an international body of water that has been used for human and narcotic smuggling.
The federal government has arrested a number of people over the last year for allegedly trying to smuggle the turtles to China.
In March, a grand jury indicted a man from Hong Kong who had allegedly mislabeled packages containing 40 protected turtles as containing almonds and chocolate cookies, an affidavit states.
The Turtle Survival Alliance, a conservation organization, describes the turtle as “vulnerable” because of habitat destruction and fragmentation; road and railroad mortality; disease transmission; and collection for personal use and the illegal pet trade.
