AP: “Flying squirrels were being trapped in Florida, driven to Chicago and shipped to South Korea, Florida wildlife officials said Monday while announcing charges against seven people they say ran an illegal wildlife trafficking operation. Poachers set as many as 10,000 squirrel traps in central Florida and captured as many as 3,600 flying squirrels over a three-year period.”
“They sold the squirrels to a licensed wildlife dealer who claimed they were bred in captivity and not wild, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said in a press release. Flying squirrels are a protected species. ‘Buyers from South Korea would travel to the United States and purchase the flying squirrels from the wildlife dealer in Bushnell. The animals were then driven in rental cars to Chicago, where the source of the animals was further concealed, and the animals were exported to Asia by an unwitting international wildlife exporter,’ the agency said.”