Two passengers have been detained at an airport near Kolkata, India on charges of smuggling wildlife. The evidence against them? A staggering total of 10,043 baby sea turtles found stashed in their luggage. Now, I’m not exactly well versed in India’s legal system, but I do have to assume “possession of 10,000 turtles” is fairly ironbound evidence of wildlife smuggling no matter where in the world you go.
The two suspects, who are Indian nationals, are suspected of trying to smuggle the animals undetected from China to Singapore, though their fiendish plan was derailed by Indian customs officials who opened their suitcases and were, we assume pretty surprised to find thousands and thousands of turtles. Because let’s face it, anyone who finds thousands of turtles anywhere should be surprised. While an investigation is being launched into the two smugglers, it’s unclear for the moment how the airport intends to care for its new army of turtles, in whihc several different species are represented.
What do 10,000 baby turtles look like, you may find yourself wondering? Wonder no more — we’ve got the video right here, courtesy of Sky News.
(via Al Jazeera, image via Sky News)
- Never help a turtle cross the street
- No word if any of the turtles were two-headed like Thelma and Louise here
- If I were a turtle, I’d take any way out of China I could
