On September 19th, the Intermediate People's Court of Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province, publicly announced the verdict of the first criminal case of illegal introduction of invasive alien species in China. The defendant Yi was sentenced to 9 months in prison and fined 100000 yuan for the crime of illegal introduction of invasive alien species; Confiscate 1760 red eared turtles that have been detained. Yi stated in court that he would obey the court's judgment and not appeal. On the evening of October 21, 2022, customs officers from the Hong Kong Zhuhai Macao Bridge under Gongbei Customs discovered abnormalities in the Guangdong Macao license plate vehicle driven by Mr. Yi during an inspection of the inbound bus passage at the port. After further inspection, the customs officers seized a large number of live turtles from the gaps between the sunroof and sunshade of the vehicle, as well as from the concealed compartments modified from the armrest box. Yi claimed that these "turtle seedlings" were used for seedling breeding, but could not provide a valid quarantine certificate. The customs officer immediately refused to release the goods in accordance with the law and sent them to relevant departments for further identification. According to professional identification, 1760 of the live turtles involved in the case are red eared color turtles (also known as Brazilian turtles), which are globally recognized as "ecological killers". They have been included in China's "List of Key Invasive Species under Management" and listed as one of the 100 most dangerous invasive species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Gongbei Customs took the initiative to liaise with local procuratorates, courts, and appraisal institutions, and conducted multiple discussions and discussions on details such as hazard analysis and valuation appraisal of the case. On August 7, 2023, the Anti Smuggling Bureau of Gongbei Customs transferred Yi to the Zhuhai People's Procuratorate for examination and prosecution on charges of illegally introducing invasive alien species. The procuratorial organs comprehensively considered factors such as the quantity and harm of illegal introduction of invasive alien species, and determined that the case belongs to the "serious circumstances" stipulated by law, and filed a public prosecution on April 12 this year. The Zhuhai Intermediate People's Court held a public hearing for the first instance of the case on June 5th. The court believes that the defendant Yi's behavior constitutes the crime of illegally introducing invasive alien species. Taking into account the facts, nature, circumstances, and degree of harm to society of Yi's crime, the court has made the above judgment in accordance with the law. It is reported that since the beginning of this year, Gongbei Customs has increased information sharing, clue management, and joint investigations with local agricultural and rural, public security, procuratorate, court and other departments, jointly building a port quarantine defense line. From January to August, Gongbei Customs intercepted a total of 31000 batches of prohibited imported animals, plants, and their products. Among them, about 26000 species of pests were detected, and 2450 alien species were found, such as musk tortoise with three edges, ghost spade beetle, Atalas big pocket worm, vampire crab, Xibelis land hermit crab, with a year-on-year increase of 47% and 517% respectively. (New Society)