Man sentenced in California for trafficking spider monkeys: 'Disrupted fragile ecosystems'

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A Texas man will spend months in prison after pleading guilty to trafficking six endangered spider monkeys, according to federal prosecutors.

Sarmad Ghaled Dafar, 33, of Houston, Texas, was sentenced on April 18 to four months in federal prison and ordered to pay $23,501.70 in restitution to cover the cost of quarantining three of the trafficked monkeys in California, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California said in a news release.

According to a charging document obtained by Paste BN, Dafar used the alias “Sam Scorpio” to conduct the trafficking and paid others involved at least $6,400 for the monkeys.

“This crime ripped weeks-old baby monkeys from their mothers, disrupted fragile ecosystems, endangered a vulnerable species, and posed significant public health risks,” said U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon in the release. “This is not merely an economic crime; it is a severe and lasting injury to both wildlife and public safety.”

Since he pleaded guilty, Dafar was ordered to turn himself in on or before May 29, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

How did investigators find out about Sarmad Dafar?

The crime was discovered on Aug. 14, 2023, when Dafar’s co-conspirator tried to smuggle the three undeclared monkeys into the U.S. at the Calexico West port of entry, the charging document says. 

An inspector stopped the operation and found the three monkeys — two girls and a boy — in a black bag, per the court document. The co-conspirator told authorities that Dafar was supposed to pay him $2,700 each for the three monkeys.

Officials searched the co-conspirator’s phone and found evidence that the monkeys were being smuggled for Dafar, according to the charging document. 

Investigators also found evidence that it wasn’t the first time Dafar had arranged the smuggling of Mexican spider monkeys. He had previously smuggled three of them into the U.S. in June 2022 and July 2023, although authorities do not know what happened to the monkeys during those incidents, the court document says.

Facebook messages helped prosecute Sarmad Dafar

Prosecutors used Dafar’s Facebook messages as evidence in the case, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

In June 2022, Dafar sent a Facebook message to a potential customer and said he had a baby monkey arriving in two weeks. He told the customer that someone would be sending him the monkey from California, and that while the monkeys go for $15,000, he’d sell it for $8,000, according to the charging document.

Dafar had one of the monkeys under a heat lamp in one photo, suggesting that he knew the baby monkey he was selling had been prematurely taken from its mother, the court document says.

He was arrested on April 3, 2024, in Texas, and then U.S. Marshals took him to California, the court document shows.

Spider monkeys now safe in new home

The three monkeys that Dafar tried to smuggle into the U.S. in June 2022 and July 2023 were not quarantined, the U.S. attorney's office said. Quarantine is required by law to prevent potential diseases from spreading, prosecutors said.

In cases such as these, Gordon said smuggling animals into the country can lead to “dangerous diseases” such as Ebola, Marburg, monkeypox, and simian immunodeficiency virus.

To quarantine the monkeys seized in August 2023, the animals were sent to the Paul Harter Veterinary Medical Center in Escondido, about 40 minutes away from the San Diego Zoo, a spokesperson for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance told Paste BN on April 22.

After quarantining, the monkeys found a permanent home at Brookfield Zoo Chicago in Illinois as part of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums Wildlife Confiscations Network, prosecutors said.

Brookfield Zoo Chicago said in its news release that the animals first arrived to the U.S. “malnourished and traumatized."

Wildlife experts in Texas and California have since been rehabilitated the monkeys and they recovered well before being sent to Brookfield Zoo Chicago in Illinois. While zoo visitors can’t see them yet, guests will be able to see them this summer, when the zoo opens its new primate exhibit, Tropical Forests.

Mexican spider monkeys are an endangered, protected species, according to Brookfield Zoo Chicago.

Spider monkeys were taken from multiple mothers who were likely hurt in the process, prosecutors say

Wildlife experts in California conducted genetic tests and proved that the three Mexican spider monkeys all had different mothers. Their exams also found that the monkeys were 6 to 8 weeks old when they were brought to the U.S, per court documents. 

The monkeys nurse throughout the first year of their lives, prosecutors said in a news release. Typically, they are not fully independent until they reach 2 years old, and most baby Mexican spider monkeys will stay with their mothers until they are 4 years old.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents testified in Dafar’s case and said Mexican spider monkey mothers will not give their babies up willingly. They are part of troops, and these troops of spider monkeys defend mothers and their babies from threats, prosecutors said, quoting wildlife officials.

To pry the babies away from their mothers, poachers often kill or incapacitate the mothers and their troops, prosecutors said in the release. 

According to wildlife experts, over 50,000 live animals were seized or abandoned at U.S. ports of entry between 2015 and 2019, and spider monkey confiscations are rising. Traffickers often target spider monkeys because they are small, and they are viewed as “exotic pets,” Brookfield Zoo Chicago said.

The story has been updated to clarify that the monkeys were rehabilitated before they arrived to Brookfield Zoo Chicago in Illinois.

Saleen Martin is a reporter on Paste BN's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.