{"id":273710,"date":"2026-05-16T20:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T20:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/273710\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T20:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T20:20:11","slug":"more-than-1800-turtles-poached-from-florida-in-illegal-trafficking-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/273710\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 1,800 turtles poached from Florida in illegal trafficking case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, over 1,800 turtles were illegally removed from Florida and exported overseas as part of a large wildlife trafficking scheme.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Investigators reported that the turtles were poached from January 2022 to December 2023 and sold illegally as pets. The case included 1,700 loggerhead musk turtles, 100 striped-neck musk turtles, and 15 striped mud turtles, with shipments worth approximately $550,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Authorities said the turtles were sent through San Francisco to Taiwan using export permits that falsely claimed the animals were captive-bred.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The investigation was part of Operation Southern Hot Herps, led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to crack down on turtle poaching in the Southeast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Officials reported that the turtles were stored in small bags inside shipping boxes, accompanied by wet paper towels and frozen broccoli packs to maintain a cool temperature during transit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The species involved are protected by both Florida law and international wildlife trade laws. Authorities indicate that the suspect is still under investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/mobile-apps\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Click here;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Click here&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:click here;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;click here&quot;}\" class=\"link \">click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ylk=\"ct:story;elm:img;itc:0;\" class=\"stretched-box\" href=\"https:\/\/wftvapps.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"537\" height=\"108\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/beda08358d6db9816e7b0d066edd22cf.jpeg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, over 1,800 turtles were illegally removed from Florida and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,8659,30,29,117005,117003,117004],"class_list":["post-273710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-fish-and-wildlife","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-mud-turtles","tag-musk-turtles","tag-wildlife-trafficking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}