Woman admits to felony charge in turtle smuggling case

BURLINGTON — A woman from Hong Kong has pleaded guilty in Vermont to a felony charge of trying to smuggle 29 protected turtles from the United States into Canada.

Wan Yee Ng, 41, entered the guilty plea Friday in U.S. District Court in Burlington to a single count of attempting to smuggle eastern box turtles, a protected wildlife species, across a lake from Vermont to Canada for the illegal global pet market.

Ng is set to be sentenced Dec. 13.

She has been held in custody since her arrest in June and will remain in custody pending her sentencing.

As part of a plea deal, Ng faces up to 10 years in prison. The actual sentence will be handed down by Judge Christina Reiss after considering the advisory federal sentencing guidelines.

In determining the sentencing guideline that applies in the case, Ng agreed that the fair market value of the 29 turtles totals more than $40,000, based on a $2,000 value for each, according to court filings.

Ng, through a Cantonese interpreter, told Reiss during Friday’s hearing that she understood she was giving up her right to a trial by entering into the plea deal.

According to the case against Ng as laid out in documents in support of the plea agreement, she arrived in Canaan, Vermont and checked into a rental home on Lake Wallace, a body of water that is bisected by the U.S.-Canada border.

Ng had caught the attention of law enforcement, court records stated, because she had rented the same property through Airbnb on Jackson Lodge Road in Canaan — a site of human smuggling “and other illegal activities” — several times.

On the morning of June 26, the documents stated, Ng began to prepare an inflatable kayak near the water’s edge and was seen by law enforcement carrying a duffel bag from the rental property to the kayak.

At the same time, the filing stated, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police reported to U.S. authorities that another person, described only in the court documents as a “co-conspirator,” was paddling toward the middle of the lake from the Canadian side.

“Law enforcement intercepted Wan Yee Ng as she prepared to paddle across Lake Wallace with the duffel bag,” the plea agreement stated.

Inside her seized duffel bag, the filing stated, authorities found 29 eastern box turtles “individually wrapped in socks for transport.”

Ng, according to the plea agreement, did not obtain the required permits to export the turtles to Canada.

“These animals are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora,” an international agreement to protect fish, wildlife and plants that are or may become threatened or extinct, court records stated.

“The eastern box turtle is a subspecies of the common box turtle and is native to forested regions of the eastern United States with some isolated populations in the Midwest,” according to federal prosecutors. “Turtles with colorful markings are especially prized in the domestic and foreign pet trade market, particularly in China and Hong Kong.”

Ng’s cell phone was also seized by authorities as part of the investigation, the plea deal stated.

The phone, according to the filing, contained communications showing that Ng was trying to smuggle the turtles into Canada so they could eventually be sold for profit in Hong Kong.

Investigators have since determined that the seized turtles had been obtained in New Jersey, according to court documents.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Woman admits to felony charge in turtle smuggling case .