ANIMALS
Texas Woman Sentenced To Jail For Smuggling, Selling Mexican Spider Monkey, Exotic Birds
Tripadvisor
A Texas woman has been sentenced to more than a year in prison for smuggling a Mexican spider monkey into the U.S. and selling it on Craigslist, along with other protected species.
Savannah Nicole Valdez, 21, pleaded guilty to selling wildlife in violation of the Lacey Act on Feb. 8, 2023, and was previously sentenced to two years of supervised release, but U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen revoked that sentence, according to a statement Monday from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas.
Hanen ordered that Valdez serve 15 months in federal prison to be immediately followed by three years of supervised release, for smuggling the monkey and for a high-speed flight from an immigration checkpoint.
In the summer of 2023, authorities discovered multiple ads on Craigslist offering exotic birds including federally protected keel-billed toucans and yellow-headed amazon parrots for sale. They traced the listed phone number to Valdez.
In an undercover operation, Valdez sent her mother to Memorial City Mall in Houston to deliver the toucans for $3,000 in payment. In another undercover purchase, Valdez sent her sister deliver the spider monkey for $8,500 in payment.
“When Savannah Valdez sold a Mexican spider monkey, she contributed to endangering a species,” U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani said in a statement. “Those who traffic in infant spider monkeys shoot the mothers first and then pull the infants from their mothers dead bodies before throwing them into cages for transport. Valdezs actions helped sustain an illicit market that encouraged the needless death and suffering of endangered animals. Thankfully, now she will have to spend time in a cage of her making — a prison cell.”
The animals were transferred to zoos in Texas, officials said.
Valdez was permitted to voluntarily surrender to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility in the near future.
TMX contributed to this article.
