Man charged with smuggling box turtles found in socks in California

A Chinese man has been charged with smuggling protected turtles after the small animals bound inside socks were intercepted in packages in Southern California, prosecutors said Monday.

Sai Keung Tin, 53, was indicted Friday on four counts of exporting merchandise contrary to law, records show.

The eastern box turtles, kept inside socks to keep them from making noise, were found in four packages at a U.S. mail facility in Torrance in 2023, which were addressed to Tin’s home, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said in a statement.

The turtles grow to around 6 inches, can live around 100 years and can have colorful shell patterns, the office said.

The eastern box turtle is protected through an international convention, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna, as well as by U.S. federal law.

That international convention was ratified in 1975, and China is a member of the pact.

Tin is charged in connection with 40 turtles found in four packages intercepted at the Torrance mail facility on June 27, 2023, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service special agent wrote in an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint.

One of the turtles was dead, but the rest were alive. Smuggled turtles are kept bound in socks to keep them from making noise by moving, and to protect their shells, the agent wrote in the affidavit.

Tin is associated with Kang Juntao, who smuggled at least 1,500 turtles from the U.S. to Hong Kong in 2017 and 2018, according to the affidavit. The turtles’ value in the pet trade is around $2.25 million.

Middlemen for Kang would send turtles to Tin’s address in Hong Kong, and from there they would be smuggled to mainland China, the affidavit says.

Kang was arrested in Malaysia in 2019, extradited to the United States, and in October 2021 he was sentenced to more than three years in prison for money laundering, the Justice Department has said. Kang, through a nationwide network, smuggled five species of turtles, including the eastern box turtle, the DOJ said.

Even though Kang was arrested and prosecuted, packages continued to be sent to Tin and intercepted in Torrance, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service special agent wrote in the affidavit.

Tin was arrested in New York City on Feb. 25 after he arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport, officials said.

Online court records did not appear to show an attorney for Tin in connection with the California case who could speak on his behalf Monday afternoon. A federal public defender was listed in New York, but the case has since been moved. That attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.