Chinese national held in turtle smuggling scheme.
A Chinese national is in federal custody in New Jersey after investigations said he financed an international smuggling ring that shipped more than 1,500 endangered turtles from the United States to China and Hong Kong, valued at more than US$2.2million (approximately HK$17million).
The turtles, many of which were bound by duct tape, stuffed into socks and shipped in mislabelled packages, were sold for as much as US$20,000 (approximately HK$155,000) each on the Asian pet black market, authorities have said.
Kang Juntao, 24, of Hangzhou City, China, was extradited from Malaysia and arrived in the United States on Thursday where he appeared virtually on charges of money laundering. He is being held without bail pending arraignment. He is alleged to have ran the smuggling ring from China, and to never had stepped foot in the United States.
Between June 2017 and December 2018, Kang arranged for intermediaries to ship turtles taken from American wetlands to associates in Hong Kong and China. He paid for the turtles through PayPal and US banks. Court documents showed that Kang used Facebook messenger to recruit six “middle men” who were typically college students from China seeking to make extra money on the side.
The turtles were then on-sold to wealthy collectors in Asia. A single North American female box turtle deemed “colourful” in Hong Kong’s black market pet trade could fetch up to US$20,000 (approximately HK$155,000).
Kang’s operation sold five types of turtles: the eastern box turtle, Florida box turtle, Gulf Coast box turtle, spotted turtle and wood turtle. All five species are considered endangered.
The extradition marks the culmination of a multiyear international investigation that traced the path of turtles from American marshes to Asian markets and included undercover work by agents of the US Fish and Wildlife Services.
Assistant US Attorney Winston Holliday, who is not involved in this case but has prosecuted numerous other poachers of protected turtles commented: -
“The difficulty we have is that a lot of these illegal wildlife shipments are going to people in China and Hong Kong. And we don’t have direct extradition treaties with those places.”
The US Justice Department has described this case a “our lunar landing” and that the extradition is a landmark win because Kang is not just the poacher or the shipper. But rather, he was the person pulling the strings in China.
Trafficking in endangered species is difficult to prosecute. According to the United Nations’ annual report on wildlife crime, the growth of legal and illegal online pet sales has allowed traffickers to better connect with new buyers and accomplices all over the world. Cross-border cooperation is critical to bringing down organized crime that hurts wildlife, the report said.