Canadian man Kai Xu pled guilty Tuesday to smuggling or attempting to smuggle over 1,000 turtles out of southeastern Michigan.
On one trip, the 27-year-old man had 51 turtles taped to his legs. Xu would order the turtles online, pick them up in the U.S., and then ship them to China or bring them back to Canada. He was arrested in 2014 and has been in custody ever since, reported Newser.
He faces up to 10 years in prison and is set to be sentenced in April, according to MLive.
Xu "regularly deals in turtle shipments worth $30,000, $80,000, or $125,000. In China, the turtles he smuggles are worth two to three times the amount he pays here," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Woodward, reported The New York Daily News. It is illegal to export wildlife without a permit.
"On the day of Xu's arrest, he packaged over 1000 turtles into suitcases that he sent with a runner he had hired to fly directly from Detroit to Shanghai. The turtles were recovered by U.S. Fish and Wildlife special agents. They had been packaged into boots and cereal boxes and concealed within luggage," the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Xu's most widely-known attempt was made when he taped 51 live turtles to his body after visiting a UPS site. He was searched by Canadian border police after a wildlife agent noticed the irregular bulges on his legs. They found all the turtles taped to his legs, reported The New York Daily News. Xu studied engineering at the University of Waterloo, but he was not enrolled at the time of his arrest.
Wildlife trade is a large part of the Chinese black market, and the trade of turtles has come into the spotlight in the past year.
