The arrest of an American accused of trafficking thousands of protected turtles has thrown a new spotlight on an illegal wildlife trade that spans the globe and threatens to force rare species of the reptile into extinction.

This upcoming trial of David Sommers, 62, has exposed New Jersey as an unlikely hotbed of poaching that has surged due to a high demand in Asia, where native populations have been depleted, wildlife advocates say.

Popular for its meat, medicinal qualities and increasingly as an exotic pet, a single turtle of the right breed can be sold for hundreds or even thousands of dollars on the black market.

Mr Sommers, from Pennsylvania, is accused of smuggling 3,500 diamondback terrapins, native to the eastern US, out of New Jersey to sell them online to American and foreign buyers.

He was charged by the Department of Justice in July after one of his shipments to Canada - a box of turtles labelled as a book - was seized by authorities. He was found with more than 3,000 turtles, most of which were hatchlings.

Officials suspect that Mr Sommers bred the terrapins himself after catching a few adult females, inducing them to lay eggs and then incubating them.