HOUSTON – A Houston woman has been sentenced to prison for illegally selling endangered animals, including a spider monkey and some toucans.
Savannah Nicole Valdez, 21, has been ordered to serve 15 months in federal prison, along with an additional three years of supervised release.
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This wasn’t Valdez’s first offense related to exotic animals. In 2022, she pleaded guilty to smuggling wildlife into the United States and fleeing an immigration checkpoint. In that case, she faced up to 20 years in federal prison and a possible $250,000 maximum fine, but she was sentenced to just two years of supervised release.
This most recent investigation began in the summer of 2023, when authorities found ads on Craigslist selling birds protected under the Endangered Species Act, including keel-billed toucans and yellow-headed Amazon parrots. They identified Valdez’s personal cell phone number as the contact number for the animals.
In an undercover operation, authorities coordinated the sale of several animals with Valdez and her family.
On July 28, 2023, Valdez’s mother delivered two keel-billed toucans to Memorial City Mall in Houston and accepted $3,000 as payment. Three days later, her sister delivered a Mexican spider monkey, accepting $8,500 as payment.
Despite the fascinating nature of these gorgeous animals, the trade of endangered species often involves extreme animal cruelty and abuse. U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani explained the severity of Valdez’s charges.
“When Savannah Valdez sold a Mexican spider monkey, she contributed to endangering a species,” said Hamdani. “As the court heard today, those who traffic in infant spider monkeys shoot the mothers first and then pull the infants from their mother’s dead bodies before throwing them into cages for transport. Valdez’s 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 Valdez sold have been safely transferred to zoos within Texas.