- A sting by Mexican authorities in September uncovered more than 2,300 live, wild-caught freshwater turtles and other valuable wildlife products. Three men were arrested and charged with wildlife crimes.
- Vallarta mud turtles, the world’s smallest and the most imperiled in the Western Hemisphere, were among the eight species seized by authorities. All are in high demand as pets, and were headed for the U.S. and Asia.
- Smuggled under horrific conditions, nearly half of the turtles seized in this raid died; the rest are being cared for at Guadalajara Zoo.
- This operation highlights rampant turtle smuggling in Mexico, home to the second-most turtle species on the planet. Conservationists urge officials to tighten law enforcement and intelligence gathering to combat trafficking that threatens the survival of the country’s wildlife.
In undercover raids carried out in late September, Mexican authorities discovered 2,339 wild-caught turtles crammed into bins in five locations in Jalisco and Baja California states. Along with the live reptiles, they found a massive stash of other illegal wildlife products that are coveted as delicacies in East Asia: 1,569 kilograms (3,459 pounds) of sea cucumbers, 1,188 kg (2,619 lbs) of shark fins, and 39 kg (86 lbs) of totoaba swim bladders. The seized goods were valued at 134 million pesos ($7.3 million).
They were destined for the U.S. and East Asia, according to Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office. Authorities arrested three people and charged them with running an organized wildlife trafficking network through an unnamed Guadalajara-based company.
The seizure — the largest since 2020, when authorities nabbed 15,000 turtles in Mexico City, also destined for China — highlights the scale of this illicit activity. It was the result of a 10-month-long operation, launched after 55 critically endangered Vallarta mud turtles (Kinosternon vogti) were stolen from a university lab in the city of Puerto Vallarta in January 2025.
But this operation had a notable difference, said Taggert Butterfield, the scientific director at the turtle conservation nonprofit Estudiantes Conservando la Naturaleza (Students Conserving Nature) in Mexico. “This is the first major bust where the government used intelligence [gathering] and collaboration with other agencies to make a significant confiscation.”
The turtles belonged to at least eight species that poachers pulled from wetlands and rivers across the country, most of them protected under Mexican and international laws. All are valuable commodities in the pet trade, prized by hobbyists and collectors.
Among the seized turtles were the world’s smallest turtle, the Vallarta mud turtle, only found in Jalisco and just described by scientists in 2018. They’re one of the most imperiled chelonians, with fewer than 300 remaining in the wild. Authorities also found endangered Cora mud turtles (Kinosternon cora), also newly described in 2020. International commercial trade is banned for both species under CITES, the global wildlife trade treaty.
The six other species seized by enforcement officials can be traded globally, but only with permits: the Alamos mud turtle (Kinosternon alamosae), Arizona mud turtle (Kinosternon stejnegeri), Tabasco mud turtle (Kinosternon acutum), Mexican box turtle (Terrapene mexicana), Mexican mud turtle (Kinosternon integrum) and Jalisco mud turtle (Kinosternon chimalhuaca).
“This seizure shows that species across Mexico, from critically endangered to least concern, are at risk of exploitation, adding to the pressures that already threaten their survival,” said Andrew Walde, senior director of conservation and science at the nonprofit Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA).
Traffickers often smuggle turtles under horrific, filthy conditions — taped, bound and transported in boxes, plastic containers, stuffed in socks, or just about any other way imaginable. They’re frequently shipped with animals from other regions, putting them at high risk of infections that could spread to other turtles or to humans.
Nearly half of the turtles seized during this operation died. The 1,700-odd survivors were taken to Guadalajara Zoo, where they were quarantined, provided with emergency care and screened for diseases, particularly ranavirus, a lethal and highly contagious pathogen. Keepers and veterinarians are carefully monitoring the turtles with the help of the Turtle Survival Alliance to contain any outbreaks and prevent further deaths.
Rehabilitating thousands of turtles is difficult. “Responding properly means coordinating a chain of actions: accurate identification, health assessment, disease control and stabilization,” said David Espinosa-Avilés, technical director at the zoo. “Each step demands expertise, infrastructure and funding to give these animals the best chance to survive and recover.” It’s expensive, and the alliance has started a fundraiser for their care.
While confiscations like these keep animals off the market, wild populations still suffer. When animals are seized from traffickers, they often spend the rest of their lives in captivity. These turtles will remain at the Guadalajara Zoo for now, with hopes of eventually returning them to the wild, if possible. In general, few confiscated animals are released back into their homeland, if their origin can even be determined.
When turtle populations dwindle and begin to disappear, they don’t bounce back quickly because these are long-lived species that reproduce late in their lives, and most young don’t survive.
Mexico’s turtles hammered by the pet trade
Mexico has the second-highest turtle and tortoise diversity in the world, home to 66 known species and subspecies. Four of these were newly described in the last seven years. Many are endemic — found nowhere else on Earth — and all are threatened by the loss, degradation and fragmentation of their habitats.
Now, the growing desire to own the palm-sized mud and musk turtles as pets, as well as private collectors’ desire to keep them, is threatening their survival.
Butterfield said much of the current demand for pet turtles comes from China, where native turtle populations have been depleted. Turtle meat is highly sought after in the country — it’s a delicacy akin to a Thanksgiving turkey — and that demand, alongside shrinking habitat, led to the disappearance of most Southeast Asian species in the 1990s, a phenomenon conservationists dubbed the Asian turtle crisis. That led traffickers to turn their sights on Africa and the Americas.
“The demand for wild turtles has moved to other parts of the world, such as Mexico, where there is little enforcement,” Butterfield said.
There’s been a precipitous increase in turtles smuggled out of Mexico in recent years. In 2020, 15,000 turtles were seized in Mexico City, destined for China, and another 200 turtles were confiscated in 2024. Earlier this year, authorities discovered 320 baby turtles in a box on a bus.
“Much of this trafficking is happening in broad daylight, on Facebook pages [or] with falsified export permits,” Butterfield said. He added that conservation areas that allow captive breeding and trade in native wildlife, known as environmental management units, often falsify information on permits and launder illegally-captured turtles among legally raised ones. “Animal conservation in Mexico right now is like the Wild West, where collectors and traffickers can work with impunity.”
While mud turtle trafficking has reached new peaks, their trade isn’t new. Butterfield said species such as Tabasco and scorpion mud turtles (Kinosternon scorpioides) and Mexican and Yucatán box turtles (Terrapene yucatana) — popular for the brightly colored patterns on their heads — are sold openly. “You can go to a Mexico City market and see hundreds in plastic crates for sale,” he said.
Pet turtles typically don’t survive long. These reptiles are relatively fragile, and most owners don’t realize that they have very specific lighting, temperature and dietary needs. The turtles often suffer, get sick and quickly die.
“The truth is that wild turtles make terrible pets,” said Alex Olivera, senior Mexico representative at the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), a U.S.-based NGO. “Every turtle sold represents many more killed or captured along the way.”
Mexico must act against trafficking, conservationists say
The raids in September were Mexico’s first integrated, multiagency attempt to nab wildlife smugglers. The investigation incorporated months of intelligence gathering from the Navy, the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (PROFEPA) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Previously, arrests came largely from random tips or seizures at the border.
Mexico’s drug cartels are heavily involved in smuggling wildlife because it’s both lucrative and low-risk, with much lighter penalties for wildlife crimes than for trafficking guns or drugs. That needs to change, conservationists say, so that penalties act as a deterrent.
“This particular operation is a hopeful sign: It shows that with coordination, investigation and political will, Mexico can begin to dismantle the networks driving its wildlife trade crisis,” Olivera said. But seizures alone won’t stop trafficking. They must be followed by prosecutions and convictions, nabbing smugglers by following the money and disrupting trade networks, he said.
Wildlife smuggling involves many links along the chain, including corrupt enforcement and customs officials who are paid to look the other way. Most arrests involve handlers who can be easily replaced, rather than the kingpins who mastermind these crimes.
“As long as collectors, middlemen and complicit officials continue to act with impunity, seizures will remain symbolic victories,” Olivera said.
A severe shortage of government funding and limited staff pose additional challenges: There are few wildlife inspectors on the ground carrying an overwhelming workload.
“In Jalisco, one of the most biodiverse states, there are three [wildlife] inspectors in [the city of] Guadalajara who are responsible for operations in the entire state,” Butterfield said, adding that in his 11 years of experience in the country, he has never seen any of them in action.
Between 2016 and 2024, only 11 of 31 states in the country prosecuted wildlife crimes, according to a recent study published in the journal Animal Biodiversity and Conservation.
In addition to on-the-ground enforcement, experts say the country needs an overhaul in its approach to wildlife crime. “Their system of processing reports, permits and other documents is archaic, and political willingness to do something about a critical situation is practically absent,” Butterfield said.
Banner image: A male Vallarta mud turtle, one of the 40 recently seized by authorities, now cared for at the Guadalajara Zoo. The species is critically endangered; fewer than 300 remain in the wild. Image by Guillermo Hernandez / Guadalajara Zoo.
Spoorthy Raman is a staff writer at Mongabay, covering all things wild with a special focus on lesser-known wildlife, the wildlife trade, and environmental crime.
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