SINGAPORE: Two Russian men have been each sentenced to 15 months in prison in Singapore for trying to smuggle 206 live endangered turtles between Bangladesh and Indonesia. They were transiting in Singapore on July 9 when authorities caught them here.
The AVA (Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority) said the two had carried four suitcases stuffed with live black pond turtles.
The two, Pavlychev Maksim, 38, and Radkov Aleksei, 34, had lined the suitcases with diapers and cloth to absorb the turtles’ excrement.
The turtles arrived dehydrated and in poor condition, the AVA said. So far, 27 have died or had to be put down as a result.
The turtles smuggled in are estimated at a worth of S$90,000 (US$65,054), and are believed to be in high demand in the exotic pet trade. They are banned from international trade, because they are critically endangered.
The men were en route to Surabaya, Indonesia, from Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Lye Fong Keng, deputy director of wildlife quarantine and inspections at the AVA, said in a statement: “The Singapore Government has zero tolerance on the use of Singapore as a conduit to smuggle endangered species and their parts and products. We will not hesitate to take harsh enforcement actions against any person or company that smuggles wildlife through Singapore.”
In 2014, a Vietnamese man was sentenced to 15 months in jail for smuggling rhino horns worth S$1.7 million (US$1.2 million) through Singapore to Vietnam. He had picked the illegal items up in Mozambique, and had travelled through various other African countries and gone through Dubai and Laos in order to evade checks.
That year, another two men were jailed for 16 months for attempting to smuggle S$60,000 (US$43,369) of African elephant ivory through Singapore. They had stashed the 45 kg of ivory into two luggage bags.
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