April 21, 2025 – SAN DIEGO, CA – Sarmad Ghaled Dafar of Houston, Texas was sentenced in federal court on Friday to four 
months in custody and 180 days home confinement for trafficking six protected baby Mexican Spider Monkeys. He was also ordered to pay $23,501.70 in restitution for the cost of quarantining three of the monkeys at the San Diego Zoo.
According to admissions in his plea agreement, Dafar coordinated the purchases and smuggling of the monkeys across the border; received them in the U.S.; and arranged for their sale on three occasions in June 2022 and August 2023.
The crime was discovered on August 14, 2023, when U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service interdicted three baby Mexican Spider monkeys being smuggled into the United States through the Calexico West Port of Entry by Dafar’s coconspirator. A search of the coconspirator’s phone led to evidence that the monkeys were being smuggled for Dafar. Additional evidence revealed that Dafar had previously arranged to have at least three other baby Mexican spider monkeys smuggled into the United States from Mexico in June 2022 and July 2023. The fate of those three monkeys remains unknown.
"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. "This is not merely an economic crime; it is a severe and lasting injury to both wildlife and public safety. Border security is not just about interdicting drugs and preventing illegal entries . It also involves protecting the public from dangerous diseases. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service contributes to securing our borders and keeping the public safe."
The defendant was ordered to surrender on or before May 29, 2025.
Baby Mexican spider monkeys continue to nurse throughout their first year and ordinarily are not fully weaned and independent until they turn two. Most baby Mexican spider monkeys will continue to stay close to their mothers until they are approximately four years old.
Dafar’s Facebook messages show that he intentionally sought baby monkeys to make the smuggling process easier. According to the government’s sentencing papers, on August 6, 2023, a Facebook user sent Dafar a news article about U.S. Border Patrol agents who "found sever spider monkeys during a smuggling attempt in Brownsville[, Texas]." Dafar responded, "I see it. He stupid brin[g] to[o] many of[] them and all adults they make a lot noise and they active. Baby’s most be sleeping and small to hide."
Photos that Dafar sent via Facebook show how young the baby monkeys were. In June 2022, Dafar sent a Facebook message to a potential customer, J.W.M., that said, "I have monkey coming in 2 week baby monkey…Is a spider monkey… [I’ll] let you know when it is here because they gonna send it to me from California." In his message to J.W.M., Dafar referred to his below-market price, "Is a spider monkey thos[e] kind go[e]s for 15k and up but I ask 8k." Along with the message, Dafar attached a photo of the baby monkey under a heat lamp in a cage. In August 2023, Dafar sent the same customer a photo of two baby Mexican spider monkeys in diapers.
According to the government’s sentencing memo, the June 2022 photo (right) of what appears to be a baby spider monkey under a heat lamp in a small cage suggests that Dafar understood or should have understood that the baby monkey he was selling had been prematurely separated from its mother.
According to testimony from U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents, Mexican spider monkey mothers will not voluntarily relinquish their babies and the entire troop of spider monkeys will try to defend the mother and baby from perceived threats. Consequently, to capture baby Mexican spider monkeys, poachers will typically have to kill or incapacitate the mother and troop to capture the baby. In the case of the three baby Mexican spider monkeys that were interdicted on August 13, 2023, the San Diego Zoo performed genetic tests and determined that the three babies each had different mothers.
The three monkeys that Dafar arranged to be smuggled into the United States in June 2022 and July 2023, were not subjected to quarantine, which is required by law to prevent the spread of disease. The regulations are designed to protect the public from zoonotic diseases, which are diseases that spread from animals to humans. Some of the most dangerous zoonotic diseases are those that transfer from primates to humans, such as Ebola, Marburg, monkeypox, and simian immunodeficiency virus
Ultimately, the three Mexican spider monkeys that were seized and quarantined by Fish and Wildlife Service in August 2023 found a home at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago as part of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums Wildlife Confiscations Network.
In the case of the three monkeys who were interdicted on August 13, 2023, Fish and Wildlife Service was able to place and pay for the baby Mexican spider monkeys’ quarantine and care at the San Diego Zoo.
The Brookfield Zoo now houses a troop of Mexican spider monkeys that consists of the three Mexican spider monkeys (Chrissy, Jack, and Janet) seized in this case, along with two Mexican spider monkeys (Frankee and Bucees) seized in another Southwest Border smuggling case. Here is a photo of Chrissy and Jack, as well as a photo of Chrissy and Jack along with their troopmates Frankee and Bucees:
This case was prosecuted by Sabrina L. Fève and Robert J. Miller.
DEFENDANT
Case Number 24CR0615Sarmad Ghaled Dafar Age: 33 Houston, Texas
SUMMARY OF CHARGES
Conspiracy – Title 18, U.S.C., Section 371
Maximum penalty: Five years in prison, $250,000 fine
INVESTIGATING AGENCY
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Source: DOJ Release
