Chinese National Sentenced for Helping Export Protected Turtles to Hong Kong
A Chinese national was sentenced on March 14 to 30 months in prison for his role in a scheme to smuggle protected turtles from the U.S. to Hong Kong, DOJ announced. Sai Keung Tin pleaded guilty last year to four counts of illegally exporting the turtles.
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Tin admitted to aiding turtle smugglers from 2018 to 2023, trafficking around 2,100 turtles to three Hong Kong addresses during that time. The animals were purportedly worth around $4.2 million. Tin was arrested last month after arriving at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.
DOJ said Tin was associated with international wildlife smuggler Kang Juntao of Hangzhou City, China, who pleaded guilty to money laundering after his extradition from Malaysia in 2019. Tin primarily exported eastern box turtles, a subspecies of the common box turtle, that is protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.