Customs officials display seized turtles at the customs office Wednesday, June 26, 2019, in Sepang, Malaysia. Two Indian citizens were arrested due to smuggling attempt into the country on a flight from Guangzhou, China with thirty-two small boxes packed with 5,225 red-eared slider turtles. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
Ali Ahamed’s black satchel was overflowing with turtles, their tiny heads poking out. Just a few feet away, on the hotel room floor, roughly 20 larger turtles with dark brown shells were removed from black suitcases and flipped onto their backs to keep them from crawling under the couch.
Ahamed had arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital and a popular stop for animal traffickers, from India a few days earlier to meet with his buyer, who had discovered the turtle broker through Facebook Inc’s social network months earlier. The two negotiated a sale on Facebook Messenger. The 55 turtles in his bags included red-crowned roofed turtles, known for their brightly coloured necks, and black spotted turtles with little yellow dots on their shells. Both species are endangered, and both have become popular pets in mainland China and Hong Kong.
