Smugglers Busted with 10 Percent of an Entire Species in Luggage

Caroline Morse Teel is the Managing Editor for SmarterTravel Media. Follow her on Instagram @TravelWithCaroline.

Caroline joined Boston-based SmarterTravel in 2011 after living in Ireland, London, and Manhattan. She's traveled to all seven continents, jumped out of planes, and bungeed off bridges in the pursuit of a good story. She loves exploring off-the-beaten path destinations, anything outdoorsy, and all things adventure.

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We guess “go big or go home” was the motto of two bold smugglers who were recently arrested in Thailand. The suspects were caught with over 10 percent of the entire world’s population of ploughshare tortoises at the airport.

The Huffington Post reports that the two smugglers were busted at an airport in Thailand with a suitcase full of 54 live tortoises. (There’s only about 200-400 left in the wild.)

This breed of tortoises is one of the world’s most endangered, and fetches a huge price on the exotic pet black market—reportedly as much as $60,000 for an adult female ploughshare tortoise.

Luckily, the tortoises were still alive when they were found at the airport.

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