185 Tortoises found in luggage at the airport

[Catherine]

Someone attempted to smuggle 185 baby tortoises from the Galapagos Islands. They were wrapped in plastic and stuffed in a suitcase. Something didn't look right  and airport security checked. When the suitcase was opened it was found to be full of baby tortoises. Sadly 10 had already died.
Smuggling can result in a 1-3 year jail sentence.

https://people.com/pets/suitcase-filled-...d-airport/

If 10 tortoises were already dead,  at the airport, at the beginning of the trip,  many more would have died in transit.
The smuggler was only concerned with making a profit from the tortoises. 
It must have been frightening for the little ones to be wrapped in plastic and stuffed in a dark suitcase.
I think the penalty for smuggling live animals is not much of a deterant.  Maybe the penalty needs to be a lot more serious if any of the animals die.
Most of the tortoises wouldn't have lived and those that did  wouldn't have had good lives. Galapagos Tortoises are really not suitable as pets. They get very big and they live very long. It is really fortunate they were found in time. I wonder how many are not found in time.