BUFFALO, New York — A Brooklyn man pleaded guilty Monday to smuggling hundreds of protected turtles and other reptiles to Hong Kong by disguising them as toys in international shipments, federal prosecutors announced in a news release .

Wei Qiang Lin, 29, admitted in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York in Buffalo that he falsely labeled more than 220 parcels as containing “plastic animal toys.” In reality, the parcels held approximately 850 live turtles, many of them bound in socks and hidden inside shipping boxes, between August 2023 and November 2024, the release says.

The turtles, primarily eastern box turtles and three-toed box turtles, are native to the U.S. and highly sought after in the exotic pet trade, particularly in China and Hong Kong, where their disti

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