A Spanish ecologist, who heads a project of Ecologistas en Accion, is to reportedly be fined €20,700 by Spain's tax agency for trying to return a group of Moorish black turtles (Testudo graeca) illegally brought into Spain from Morocco. According to Spanish newspaper Euro Weekly, the Spanish NGO Ecologistas en Accion had launched a program to return turtles smuggled into Spain from Morocco. To the Cadiz-based association denounced the sanction, claiming it is «inexplicable, arbitrary and unfair». The aforementioned fine will be added to another €1,600 euros that one of the other ecologists participating in the same program has to pay. Debe ser que en #Cádiz no hay mayores problemas de contrabando para dedicar tiempo y funcionarios a perseguir a dos "peligrosos" @ecologistas, Juan Clavero y Antonio Acosta, que pretenden devolver una especie protegida a su país de origen. https://t.co/sTVpb1ZtA4 pic.twitter.com/mzzv9sH7d3 — EeAExtremadura (@EeAExtremadura) January 8, 2020 Ecologistas en Accion said its members took care of several Moorish turtles that were given to them years ago by people who had illegally brought them from Morocco. Thus, they had 23 black Moorish turtles in El Puerto de Santa Maria and 2 others in El Bosque. The NGO's members reportedly spent the past two years in «tedious negotiations, overcoming all kinds of bureaucratic obstacles», to get the needed authorization from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Development sustainable in Spain and Morocco in order to return these animals to their natural habitat. However, shortly before the procedure was completed, the office responsible for this matter in Spain reportedly sent incomplete information to the tax agency on the return of these turtles to Morocco, excluding authorizations already issued by the Andalusian government and the Moroccan authorities. «They are just volunteers from an environmental association with a pioneering project in Andalusia to return specimens of black turtles taken illegally from their natural habitat», the NGO concluded.
