MEXICO CITY » Environmental prosecutors in Mexico say three suspects have been detained in the southern Pacific coast state of Oaxaca with more than 10,000 illegally harvested eggs from protected sea turtles.

The Attorney General for Environmental Protection says in a statement Thursday that police found two women and a man with 10,375 olive ridley turtle eggs during a passenger bus inspection in the town of Santo Domingo Tehuantepec.

The suspects told authorities they were traveling to the coastal city of Salina Cruz.

Olive ridley turtles nest on the Mexican coast and are protected under the country’s law. Conviction for harvesting their eggs is punishable by prison terms of one to nine years.