He helped smuggle ‘status symbol’ turtles to China. He got nearly three years in prison

The packages in a California mail facility were labeled as almonds and chocolate cookies. But inside were dozens of turtles wrapped in socks to keep them from moving and alerting authorities.

They were among around 2,100 turtles federal authorities say Sai Keung Tin, a Chinese citizen, had trafficked over more than five years as part of what the U.S. Department of Justice called the illegal Asian pet trade. Tin pleaded guilty in December to four counts of exporting merchandise contrary to federal law.

On Friday morning, in downtown Los Angeles, U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton sentenced Tin to nearly three years in prison for his role in smuggling the protected turtles out of the country.

The eastern box turtles, known for the vivid yellow-orange markings on their shells, were bound from the East Coast for Hong Kong and were intercepted in Torrance, prompting the case to be prosecuted in California. Department of Justice attorneys say the native North American species is coveted by a rising middle class and are worth at least $2,000 each on the black market.

The turtles are native to forested regions of the eastern U.S., with some isolated populations in the Midwest. They typically reach a length up to 6 inches and can live more than 100 years, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“Some people prize wine, fancy cars, artwork, but right now, with the rise of [the] middle class in China, it is turtles,” Ryan Connors, senior trial attorney with the Department of Justice’s environmental crimes section, said at the sentencing hearing. “It is North American turtles that are a status symbol.”

The turtles are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, of which China and the U.S. are both parties, according to the Department of Justice.

Tin has already served more than a year in prison, according to his attorney, William Harris, who had requested a sentence of a year and a day. Harris said Tin disagreed with the sentence and has instructed him to file a notice of appeal.

“We’ll take it from there,” Harris said.

According to the government’s sentencing memorandum, Tin aided and abetted turtle smugglers in the U.S. from February 2018 to June 2023. Authorities estimated that the smuggled reptiles were valued at $4.2 million.

During the hearing, Tin — through an interpreter — denied having smuggled as many turtles as the government claimed.

“I was not aware of the seriousness of my crime and while I am in no way trying to justify me breaking the law, I did not think it was such a bad thing in helping get turtles into my native Hong Kong,” Tin wrote in a letter to the judge ahead of sentencing. “I can promise the court now that I know the seriousness of my crime. I will never do it again.”

The case against Tin originated in June 2023, when U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service inspectors intercepted four packages containing 40 eastern box turtles at an international mail facility in Torrance. The packages, one of which contained a dead turtle, were addressed to “Ji Yearlong,” a name believed to be one of Tin’s aliases. They were supposed be shipped to Tin’s home in Hong Kong, prosecutors said.

Tin’s attorney, Harris, said in a sentencing memo that his client agreed to receive box turtles that would be shipped illegally from New York and New Jersey to his home in Hong Kong.

“These were supposed to be, by and large, family pets,” Harris told the judge on Friday. “[Tin] is done with turtle trafficking, it was a grievous mistake on his part.”

Agents arrested Tin in February 2024 after he arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. A jury indicted him in March 2024, when he was tied to the four packages shipped a year earlier.

While in the U.S., authorities said Tin planned to pay for turtles in cash, ship them around the country and later illegally export them to Hong Kong. Prosecutors said he had detailed information on how to soak turtles to reduce odors and bind them in socks with tape.

Authorities said Tin was associated with Kang Juntao, an international turtle smuggler from Hangzhou City, China. Juntao was extradited from Malaysia in 2019 and later sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to money laundering. Kang had at least 1,500 turtles shipped from the U.S. to Hong Kong, including to Tin, according to prosecutors.

“We’re seeing thousands of them ripped from the wild and sent to the illegal pet trade,” Connors said. “This is how a native U.S. species starts to collapse.”