Woman pleads guilty to trying to smuggle 29 turtles across Vermont lake to Canada in kayak

A Chinese woman has pleaded guilty to trying to smuggle 29 eastern box turtles, a protected species, across a Vermont lake to Canada by kayak.

BURLINGTON, VT — A Chinese woman pleaded guilty Friday to trying to smuggle 29 eastern box turtles, a protected species, across a Vermont lake to Canada by kayak.

Wan Yee Ng, 41, was arrested the morning of June 28 at an Airbnb in Canaan as she prepared to board an inflatable kayak with a duffel bag on Wallace Lake, according to a police officer’s affidavit. Border Patrol agent filed in federal court.

Officers had been informed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that two other people, including a man believed to be her husband, had begun paddling an inflatable boat from the Canadian side of the lake toward the United States, according to court documents.

Officers searched his heavy gym bag and found 29 live box turtles individually wrapped in socks, the affidavit states. Eastern box turtles are known to be sold on the Chinese black market for $1,000 each, the affidavit states.

Her cellphone was seized and a search by law enforcement turned up communications showing she attempted to smuggle the turtles into Canada so they could eventually be sold for a profit in Hong Kong, according to the plea agreement. Ng, originally from Hong Kong, lived in Canada.

She pleaded guilty Friday to one count of illegally attempting to export and ship 29 eastern box turtles out of the United States, contrary to the law. VTDigger first reported on the plea deal.

She is expected to be sentenced in December and faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.