A Chinese national living in Brooklyn tried to smuggle $1.4 million worth of protected turtles wrapped in masking tape out of the United States — by passing them off as “plastic animal toys,” prosecutors said Monday.

Wei Qiang Lin worked to ship 222 packages of about 850 turtles — worth an average of about $1,650 a pop — to Hong Kong for more than a year leading up to November 2024 before his clandestine operation was brought to a halt, the Department of Justice said.

A man in Brooklyn tried to smuggle protected turtles out of the country by claiming they were “toys,” authorities said. U.S. District Court for the Western District of NY

Lin mostly shipped eastern box turtles and three-toed turtles, which both have colorful markings that make them attractive on the domestic and foreign pet markets but are protected species by international trade rules, according to prosecutors.

The roughly 5.5-inch-long eastern box turtles “are one of the most commonly seen turtles in the wild’’ but also have become protected and even endangered in some states because of habitat loss, getting hit by vehicles and the pet trade, according to the National Wildlife Federation.

Some of the turtles were wrapped in tape and then stuffed into socks. U.S. District Court for the Western District of NY

The slightly smaller three-toed box turtles are typically found in the south and central US and considered vulnerable because of a loss of habitat from development and also because of the pet business.

Law enforcement at JFK Airport in Queens found 106 of the turtles bound and taped inside knotted socks, and some were even wrapped in diapers, between August 2023 and October 2023, according to a criminal complaint.

The protected turtles were worth $1.4 million collectively. U.S. District Court for the Western District of NY

Over the next year, another 608 turtles, as well as seven venomous snakes and 28 lizards, smuggled by Lin were also intercepted by authorities at the Big Apple airport, the feds said.

The parcels were falsely labeled “plastic animal toys,” according to prosecutors.

Only a handful of the illicit packages from Lin snuck through to Hong Kong during his 15-month scheme, which ended after authorities conducted undercover sales, according to the complaint.

He copped to the scheme and is expected to be sentenced Dec. 23. He could face as much as five years in prison and a fine as high as $250,000.