Prosecutor’s Office seizes 25 thousand turtle eggs on the Isthmus

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The assurance was made yesterday afternoon around 4:30 pm, on the old road to San Luis Rey at the junction with the Salina Cruz-La Ventosa highway.

State security elements and the Oaxaca Attorney General’s Office secured 25,000 sea turtle eggs in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec area. The attorney general Rubén Vasconcelos reported that the arrest of a man was achieved as a result of the mobile checkpoints that have been installed on the highways, in this case, on the Salina Cruz La Ventosa highway.

The officer specified they were trying to evade the police car and flee with greater speed, and after a chase he abandoned the vehicle on a stretch of dirt road, where those involved fled, entering among the undergrowth, where one of the suspects was captured. Initial reports indicate that turtle eggs were intended to be shipped to Mexico City for marketing to a majority buyer, he is already being tracked.

Vasconcelos affirmed that the detainees and the insured product were placed at the disposal of the Public Ministry of the Federation, dependent on the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR).

Illegal trafficking of turtle eggs violates the official Mexican standard NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010, which classifies the turtle species that inhabit Mexico as threatened, subject to special protection in endangered species.

Following article 420 of the Federal Penal Code, a sentence is up to nine years in prison and a fine ranging from 300 to 3,000 days will be imposed on those responsible for illegally collecting and storing sea turtle eggs.

They transported the turtle eggs in 50 black plastic bags, hidden under tarps in the back of a van. 

Source: eluniversal.com.mx

The Oaxaca Post