Woman pleads guilty to trying to smuggle 29 turtles across a Vermont lake into Canada by kayak

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A woman from China has pleaded guilty to attempting to smuggle 29 eastern box turtles, a protected species, across a Vermont lake into Canada by kayak. A Border Patrol agent’s affidavit states that Wan Yee Ng was arrested on the morning of June 28 at an Airbnb in Canaan as she was about to get into an inflatable kayak with a duffle bag on Lake Wallace. The agents searched the bag and found 29 live eastern box turtles individually wrapped in socks. Court documents say law enforcement found communications on her cellphone showing that she tried to smuggle the turtles into Canada so that they could eventually be sold for profit in Hong Kong. She is scheduled to be sentenced in December.