The Guardia Civil Service for the Protection of Nature (Seprona) has broken up one of the largest international organisations dedicated to the illegal trafficking of the endangered species of turtle, with the arrest of three people and the continuing investigation of three others in Mallorca and Barcelona.
In the operation “Coahuila”, named for the species of the first turtles found in the investigation, the agents located the largest illegal turtle hatchery in Europe in a rustic farm in the municipality of Llucmajor Mallorcan and discovered the collaboration of an exotic pet exotic in Barcelona that wa responsible for their marketing”.
More than 1,100 specimens of 62 different turtle species were seized, including up to 14 species considered to be in critical danger of extinction, and about 200 females that were in the process of laying, as well as more than 750 eggs.
A spokesman said that when they were found, the turtles were all well cared for.
