CBS News
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.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
CBS News
Yellowstone hiker burned when she falls into scalding water near Old Faithful, park officials say
Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. — A New Hampshire woman suffered severe burns on her leg after hiking off-trail in Yellowstone National Park and falling into scalding water in a thermal area near the Old Faithful geyser, park officials said.
The 60-year-old woman from Windsor, New Hampshire, along with her husband and their leashed dog were walking off a designated trail near the Mallard Lake Trailhead on Monday afternoon when she broke through a thin crust over the water and suffered second- and third-degree burns to her lower leg, park officials said. Her husband and the dog weren’t injured.
The woman was flown to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho for treatment.
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank
Park visitors are reminded to stay on boardwalks and trails in hydrothermal areas and exercise extreme caution. The ground in those areas is fragile and thin and there’s scalding water just below the surface, park officials said.
Pets are allowed in limited, developed areas of Yellowstone park but are prohibited on boardwalks, hiking trails, in the backcountry and in thermal areas.
The incident is under investigation. The woman’s name wasn’t made public.
This is the first known thermal injury in Yellowstone in 2024, park officials said in a statement. The park had recorded 3.5 million visitors through August this year.
Hot springs have injured and killed more people in Yellowstone National Park than any other natural feature, the National Park Service said. At least 22 people have died from hot spring-related injuries in and around the 3,471-square-mile national park since 1890, park officials have said.
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.