He was promised $57 for smuggling in 499 of the animals, which are sold as pets and have a street value of about $17,100, the AVA said. The tortoises were handed over to the Singapore Zoo.

Singapore, a regional air and shipping hub, is a transit point in growing trafficking in illegal wildlife between the United States and parts of Asia such as India and Indonesia.

Four wildlife smuggling syndicates have been identified in Singapore and authorities confiscated animals worth $171,200 in the first five months of 2003, compared with $37,050 for all of last year, the AVA said.

"As long as there is money to be made in this, there is always going to be this problem," AVA spokesman Goh Shih Yong said.

Exotic birds such as the Moluccan cockatoo, a highly endangered species, are among the most common animals smuggled from Indonesia, while tortoises, often crammed into cotton bags and stuffed into boxes, are usually smuggled from India.

The tortoises, a popular pet, are sometimes fed in Singapore before being shipped out again, often to the United States. But authorities also report a local market for exotic animals. A scorpion can fetch $57, for example, and a cockatoo $570.