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6 “Ninja Turtle Gang” members arrested, 200 smuggled reptiles seized in Malaysia
Malaysian authorities have arrested six members of an international crime ring known as the “Ninja Turtle Gang” and seized about 200 smuggled tortoises and turtles, a wildlife official said Tuesday.
Abdul Kadir Abu Hashim, director-general of Malaysia’s wildlife and national parks department, said four Cambodians and two Malaysians were arrested during a July 2 raid on a house in Kuala Lumpur by police and wildlife officials.
He told AFP some 200 turtles and tortoises worth an estimated $52,300 were rescued during the raid, the second seizure in Malaysia in less than a week.
Many people across Asia believe turtles and tortoises bring good luck and prosperity.
Abdul Kadir said the six arrested belong to the “Ninja Turtle Gang,” an international crime ring involved in smuggling reptiles.
Police and wildlife officials rescued 400 tortoises during an initial raid on June 29 that were meant for sale in Southeast Asia and were worth $805,084 on the black market.
Animals rescued in the latest raid included the critically endangered Chinese striped-necked turtle, which is also known as the golden thread turtle, Abdul Kadir said. The Chinese striped-neck turtle is native to China, Taiwan, Laos and Vietnam, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“This species is popular in the pet trade both within and outside the native range, and it has a history of being used as a food source and in traditional medicine,” the agency says.
Other species included the endangered black pond turtle, snapping turtle, sulcata tortoise, leopard tortoise and the red-footed tortoise found throughout South America and the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Barbados.
JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images
Leopard tortoises are native to the dry savannahs of central and southern Africa, according to the Maryland Zoo, which houses them.
“Historically, they also have been heavily exploited by the pet trade,” the zoo says. “They are hunted and consumed locally for food.”
Also discovered were three snakes, four softshell turtles, skink, a type of lizard and five frogs.
“Initial investigations revealed that the reptiles were smuggled from abroad to meet the lucrative pet market,” Abdul Kadir said.
The rescued animals were being kept in a Malaysian wildlife department quarantine center.
The reptiles are illegally brought into Malaysia by road or in suitcases by smugglers aboard commercial flights, Abdul Kadir said last week.
Traffic, a wildlife NGO, has said that Southeast Asian countries “function as source, consumer and as entrepots for wildlife originating from within the region as well as the rest of the world.”
Between June 2017 and December 2018, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigation found that more than 1,500 native turtles — including wood turtles, spotted turtles and eastern box turtles — traveled from the U.S. to Asia.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Justice charged a man for allegedly trafficking turtles from California to his home in Hong Kong.
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Paul Whelan, freed in prisoner swap with Russia, tells other American detainees: “We’re coming for you”
Washington — Nearly seven weeks after the Russians handed over Paul Whelan on a tarmac in Ankara, Turkey, the Marine veteran stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol with a message for other Americans who are held abroad.
“We’re coming for you,” he told reporters Tuesday night after he met with lawmakers. “It might take time, but we’re coming.”
Whelan said he spoke with lawmakers about how the government can better support detainees after they’re released.
“We spoke about how the next person’s experience could be better,” he said. “What the government could do for the next person that’s held hostage and comes home — the care and support that other people might need, especially people that are in a worse situation. There are people coming back that lived in the dirt without shoes for three years, people that were locked up in hideous conditions for 20 years. They need support.”
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The U.S. secured Whelan’s release in August in one of the largest prisoner swaps since the end of the Cold War. The complex deal came after months of sensitive negotiations between the U.S., Russia, Germany, Slovenia, Poland and Norway.
As part of the deal, Russia released 16 prisoners while the Western countries released eight Russians. Whelan was released alongside Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Russian-American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a U.S. green card holder and Kremlin critic.
Whelan, who had been the longest-held American detainee in Russia, was arrested in December 2018 when he traveled to the country to attend a friend’s wedding. He was convicted of espionage in a secret trial and sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.
Whelan, his family and the U.S. government vehemently denied that he was a spy and accused Russia of using him as a political pawn. The U.S. government considered him to be wrongfully detained, a rare designation that put more government resources toward securing his release.
But a deal to secure his freedom was long elusive. He remained behind bars as Russia freed Marine veteran Trevor Reed and women’s basketball star Brittney Griner — both of whom were detained after Whelan’s arrest — in prisoner swaps with the U.S.
The U.S. said it pushed for his inclusion in both exchanges, but Russia refused. It led to Whelan advocating for his own release from a remote prison camp, calling government officials and journalists to make sure that he wasn’t forgotten.
When the plane carrying Whelan, Gershkovish and Kurmasheva landed in Maryland on Aug. 1, Whelan was the first to disembark. He was greeted by President Biden, who gave Whelan his American flag pin, and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Whether he likes it or not, he changed the world,” Rep. Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat, told reporters Tuesday.
Whelan’s case and his family’s constant pressure on the U.S. government brought more attention to the cases of Americans who are wrongfully detained by foreign governments.
Haley said Whelan is a reminder to other Americans considering traveling to Russia that “you have a target on your back.”
Whelan said it’s been an adjustment acclimating to life back in the U.S., especially learning the latest technology like his iPhone 15.
“I was in a really remote part of Russia,” he said. “We really didn’t have much. The conditions were poor. The Russians said the poor conditions were part of the punishment. And coming back to see this sort of thing now is a bit of a shock, but it’s a good shock.”