NEW YORK (AP) — A New York resident has admitted he tried to smuggle protected turtles worth more than $1 million from the United States to Hong Kong by shipping them in boxes labeled “plastic animal toys.”

Wei Qiang Lin, a Chinese national who lives in Brooklyn, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in New York to attempting to export more than 220 parcels containing around 850 eastern box turtles and three-toed box turtles, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

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