The Shanghai customs on Jan. 27 said more than 2,000 turtles had been intercepted from smugglers, which include some threatened species such as the black pond turtles, Amboina box turtles and pig-nosed turtles.
On Nov. 19 last year, an international shipping company in Shanghai declared import of eight boxes of crabs, weighing 221 kilograms, from Indonesia. Customs staff found the goods suspicious so they opened the boxes and checked the goods.
“When we opened the cartons, we found crabs on the upper layer and a great number of little turtles beneath the crabs. We counted them and there were more than 2,000 turtles,” said Wu Bin, director of the Customs Materials Control Department of Shanghai Pudong International Airport.
Wu said the case has been handed over to the anti-smuggling department for further investigation, and the smuggled turtles have been sent to Shanghai zoos.
The Shanghai customs stopped 1,861 smuggling cases last year, worth 8.56 billion yuan in total.
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