Hong Kong police have arrested two men for trying to smuggle more than 7,000 live pet turtles to mainland China, the government said Friday.
Marine police intercepted the two men Wednesday as they were loading about 300 cartons onto speedboats near an outlying island close to mainland Chinese waters, a government statement said.
The cartons were stacked with clear plastic containers containing thousands of turtles, a photograph published in the Ming Pao Daily News showed.
Most of the animals were snapping turtles, a species found in Canada and South America. Razorback musk turtles, native to the U.S., were also found. None of the smuggled species were endangered, an agricultural department spokesman said.
The turtles were seized along with counterfeit computer discs worth a total of HK$6.4 million (US$820,000;
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