A US man was sentenced to a year in prison last week for his participation in a wildlife smuggling ring that saw often-rare live Asian and American turtles shipped back and forth between Hong Kong, New York, and South Carolina — sometimes hidden in candy wrappers.
The man, Matthew Kail, was sentenced in a US federal court in South Carolina for his substantial role in the ring, which was led locally by “notorious” wildlife trafficker Steven Verren Baker, The State newspaper reports.
“The volume of turtles was comparable to what Baker was doing,’’ assistant US Attorney Winston Holliday said of Kail. “He was definitely collecting in the wild. [The sentence] is significant. We are getting jail sentences for wildlife trafficking, which I think is a substantial disincentive for people who are engaged in trading.’’
Baker had already been sentenced to 16 months in prison in March, according to The State. One other man was sentenced to five months for his comparatively minor involvement in the ring, while two more were handed probation.
Federal investigators first got wind of the smuggling ring when they discovered a shipment of 48 endangered Chinese and South American turtles hidden in a box full of candy and noodles sent from Hong Kong to New York’s JFK International Airport in 2016.
A man arrested in connection with that shipment — Jason Hsu, later revealed to be a key contact of the South Carolina wing of the operation — clued authorities in to his accomplices in the Palmetto State, and to the ring’s connection to Hong Kong, New York media reports.
Kail had pleaded guilty to receiving both money and valuable foreign turtles as compensation for catching and supplying domestic turtles to Baker.
Though Kail’s parents claimed he had been “manipulated” by Baker, prosecutors maintained he had known he was breaking the law by trading in protected turtles, which were collectively worth some $300,000.
Hong Kong has long played an outsized role in the international illegal wildlife trade. In recent months, the city has seen enormous, at-times record-breaking, hauls of rhino horn, pangolin scales, and elephant ivory.
A major report in January found that “not only is the trade in legal and illegal wildlife at a significant and unsustainable scale, it is likely to get worse”, and that as a major hub in the wildlife product trade, Hong Kong “should and could do more to disrupt the associated criminal activity.”
While Hong Kong upped penalties for wildlife smuggling last year, the report’s authors say sentences are still too lenient, and that wildlife crime should be included under the Organised and Serious Crime Ordinance.
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