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| Handout photo released by the Galapagos Ecologic Airport of some of 185 baby giant tortoises wrapped in plastic, after being seized in a suitcase at the airport in Puerto Ayora, Galapagos, Ecuador, on March 28, 2021. AFP-Yonhap |
Three people were sentenced by an Ecuadoran court Friday to a year in prison for trafficking 84 giant tortoises and five golden iguanas from the Galapagos, a fragile ecosystem registered as a Natural World Heritage site.
The defendants pleaded guilty and were also fined $29,000, the national prosecutor's office said in a statement.
The trio were arrested in June when the Ecuadoran Navy boarded the boat in which they were traveling and found five bags filled with the golden land iguanas and nine boxes containing the San Cristobal giant tortoises, seven of which were dead.
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| A marine iguana suns itself on the edge of a boardwalk in San Cristobal, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador on May 2, 2020. AP-Yonhap |
The animals were being "transferred from the Galapagos to be traded in Guayaquil," the prosecutor's office said.
It said a golden iguana (Conolophus subcristatus) can sell for up to $20,000 on the black market, while the tortoises ― of the endangered Chelonoidis chathamensis species ― can sell for up to $5,000 each.
Located nearly 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) off the coast of Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands are a biosphere reserve and home to unique flora and fauna. (AFP)
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