Suspects held over trade in rare tortoises
One of the suspects, a man surnamed Yuan based in Guangdong Province
Eight people suspected of illegally buying and selling radiated tortoises, an endangered species from Madagascar, have been caught, Shanghai police said on Monday.
Police in Xuhui District said they began an investigation in December last year after a report that radiated tortoises were being sold online at 4,000 yuan (US$566) to 10,000 yuan, police said.
Police found that the source of the tortoises was a man surnamed Xu living in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. He is said to have claimed to have channels to smuggle tortoises from abroad.
A man surnamed Huang in Ningbo in Zhejiang Province contacted Xu via WeChat and bought tortoises in October 2018, police said.
Police said the tortoises were then sold by Huang to a man surnamed Yuan in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, who paid over 200,000 yuan for them.
Yuan is alleged to have sold tortoises for over 400,000 yuan since 2018.
When the suspects were caught, police also seized 53 unsold radiated tortoises.
Police said the tortoises had been handed to Shanghai Zoo to be looked after.
There are no legal radiated tortoise farms in China, and any animals found in China have been smuggled into the country, police said.
Endangered wildlife under international protection, such as radiated tortoises, are also protected by Chinese laws, and any trade in such animals will be punished, police said.
Under China’s Criminal law, anyone convicted of such offenses faces over 10 years in prison.
Police seized 53 tortoises and handed them over to Shanghai Zoo to be looked after.
There are no radiated tortoise farms in China and any such animals in the country would have been smuggled from abroad, police said.
