An international monkey smuggling ring has been dismantled in the state of Florida, US, with eight people charged on Wednesday with involvement in the case.
Two Cambodian wild life officials from the Hong Kong-based Vanny Resources Holdings primate supply company and six foreign nationals were charged with illegally smuggling the long-tailed macaques, also known as crab-eating macaques.
The macaques are a endangered species that require special permits to be exported to the US for use in medical testing.
Prosecutors said the suspects worked with black market traders and corrupt Cambodian government officials to obtain the captured macaques and “launder” them through breeding facilities in Cambodia. The laundering process conceals that the macaques were taken illegally from national parks and protected areas, with the monkeys’ fate being a dealer in Miami.
“The macaque is already considered an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature,” said US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Juan Antonio Gonzalez, in a statement. “The practice of taking them illegally from their habitat and transporting them to a laboratory is something we must stop. Greed should never come before responsible conservation.”
One of the ringleaders, 46-year-old Masphal Kry, was arrested on Wednesday at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City. Kry was Deputy Director of the Wildlife and Biodiversity Department at the Cambodian Forestry Administration.
Investigators said Kry personally transported the monkeys to the Cambodian facilities and received payments from other members of the smuggling ring between December 2017 and September 2022.
The other Cambodian government official, 58-year-old Omaliss Keo, was the General Director of the Cambodian Forestry Administration.
The eight foreign nationals were charged under the Endangered Species Act for “knowingly engaging in the international trade of protected wildlife specimens…