SAN DIEGO — A Houston man has been sentenced to four months in custody for facilitating the smuggling of six baby Mexican spider monkeys into the United States from Mexico.
33-year-old Sarmad Ghaled Dafar was also sentenced in federal court Friday to 180 days of home confinement, and was ordered to pay $23,501.70 in restitution for the cost of quarantining three of the monkeys at the San Diego Zoo.
According to his plea agreement, Dafar coordinated the purchases and smuggling of monkeys into the United States, and arranged for them to be sold on three occasions in June 2022 and August 2023.
Prosecutors say on August 14, 2023, agents with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service discovered three baby Mexican spider monkeys being smuggled into the United States from Mexico through the Calexico West Port of Entry by Dafar’s coconspirator. A subsequent search of that person’s phone revealed the monkeys were being smuggled for Dafar, and that Dafar have previously arranged to smuggle at least three other baby Mexican spider monkeys into the United States from Mexico. The fate of those three monkeys is unknown…