4 November 24-30, 2022 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | music | cafe | culture | Night+Day | news | letters | coNteNts | MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | ▼ MIAMI-DADE MONKEY BUSINESS FEDS SAY SMUGGLERS SNATCHED WILD MONKEYS FOR ILLICIT SALES TO PHARMA LABS. BY NAOMI FEINSTEIN T wo Cambodian wildlife officials have been indicted on felony charges by the U.S. Department of Justice for allegedly smug- gling wild-caught monkeys into the United States. The Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed the indictment on November 16 after defen- dant Masphal Kry, a deputy director of the de- partment of wildlife within the Cambodian Forestry Administration, was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Omaliss Keo, the director general of the Cambodian Forestry Administration’s Minis- try of Agriculture and Forestry and Fisheries, was originally indicted in July with six al- leged co-conspirators. A superseding indictment was filed on No- vember 3 to charge Kry. According to the Department of Justice, Kry and Keo conspired with the owner of a primate supply organization and five of its employees to export wild long-tailed ma- caques, falsely labeled as captive-bred, into the U.S for profit. The monkey supplier based in Hong Kong, Vanny Resources Holdings, worked with black market collectors in Cambodia and Thailand, who took monkeys from national parks and other protected areas to launder them through Cambodian entities for export to U.S. labs, according to the DOJ. The long-tailed macaques, otherwise known as crab-eating macaques, are native to Southeast Asia and are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endan- gered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Animals under CITES protection require special permits to be imported into the U.S. In this case, hundreds of monkeys — wild-caught mixed with captive bred — were exported to labs in Texas and South Florida under false CITES export permits. “The practice of illegally taking [ma- caques] from their habitat to end up in a lab is something we need to stop,” said Juan Anto- nio Gonzalez, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida. “Greed should never come before responsible conservation.” Edward Grace, the assistant director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement, said this investigation “exposes the large-scale, illegal laundering of wild long-tailed macaques for use in bio- medical and pharmaceutical research.” He added that taking animals out of their natu- ral habitats and smuggling them into the country puts the health of U.S. residents and wildlife in danger. Seven shipments of monkeys were sent to Miami for biomedical and pharmaceutical re- search from 2018 through late 2021. The first shipment to Miami on July 25, 2018, had 150 macaques at a declared value of $306,000. The next two shipments to Miami of 360 macaques each came between August 2018 and May 2019 — and were declared at $661,680 and $714,600, respectively. In February 2020, 288 long-tailed ma- caques, of which 138 were wild caught, were delivered to a location in Miami. Another de- livery of 396 macaques, including 323 ille- gally captured monkeys, was sent to Miami again in November 2020, according to the DOJ. The February shipment’s declared value was $697,500 whereas November’s was $1.2 million. The last two Miami shipments, each con- taining more than 500 monkeys, arrived in May 2021 and December 2021. The May ship- ment had a declared value of $1.8 million, and the December shipment was valued at $4 mil- lion. The indictment did not identify the entity or entities that received the monkeys in Miami. The eight defendants are being charged with seven counts of smuggling and one count of conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act and the Endangered Species Act. Each defendant faces up to five years in prison on the conspiracy charge and an addi- tional 20 years on each of the seven smug- gling charges if convicted. Miami has long been at the epicenter of il- legal animal trafficking and the exotic animal trade. Because Miami International Airport is one of the most popular airports in the coun- try for importing exotic animals, it has a Fish & Wildlife Service K-9 unit dedicated to “sniffing out” animal trafficking. | RIPTIDE | Photo by Etienne Gosse via Flickr ▼ MIAMI MAKE IT RAIN BOOBY TRAP MAKES COMPETING $5 MILLION OFFER FOR ARENA NAMING RIGHTS. BY ALEX DELUCA I magine – it’s the year 2023, and you’re going to watch your hometown basketball team, the Miami Heat, play at their beloved down- town arena: the BangBros Center. Though it feels more fit for a comedy sketch than real life, the prospect of a Bang- Bros Center is not that far-fetched in Miami following the downfall and bankruptcy of FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency empire. On Friday, Miami-Dade County and the Miami Heat swiftly pulled out (pun in- tended) of their partnership with FTX, the erstwhile namesake of the downtown arena owned by the county. In typical Miami fashion, the unfolding saga has grown more absurd by the day. On November 12, popular porn site BangBros announced that it would be re-submitting a $10 million offer for the naming rights to the arena after its 2019 offer to rename it “Bang Bros Center (BBC)” failed to ma- terialize. (A com- pany spokesperson recently told New Times they hope the county “seriously” reconsiders their offer in light of recent events). Joining the growing chorus of erotic bids for the arena’s naming rights, the owner of Booby Trap South Florida confirmed to New Times that they too have made an offer with Miami-Dade County to stick their name on the arena that sits along Biscayne Bay. Owner Gregg Berger wrote via Instagram DM that Booby Trap, which owns a handful of strip clubs across Miami and Pompano Beach, made a $5 million offer to rename the venue “Booby Trap Arena.” “We are a staple in Miami,” he wrote, “and we think the fans would be behind the idea.” It remains to be seen whether the county is aroused by either offer. News of the strip club’s bid was first reported on November 16 by the blog SportsGossip.com. Previously known as American Airlines Arena, the facility was renamed FTX Arena in June 2021 per a 19-year, $135-million sponsorship agree- ment between the Bahamas-based crypto ex- change company and Miami-Dade County. In a joint statement released on November 11, county mayor Daniella Levine Cava and the Miami Heat called the news regarding FTX’s collapse “extremely disappointing.” “Miami-Dade County and the Miami Heat are immediately taking action to terminate our busi- ness relationships with FTX, and we will be work- ing together to find a new naming rights partner for the arena,” the statement reads. The naming rights contract between the county and FTX includes penalties of $16.5 mil- lion – plus the costs to remove the signage and decorations – in the event the company is unable to fulfill the contract. The $32 billion empire known as FTX was launched in 2017 by Bankman-Fried, a 30 year old who has been called a “modern-day J.P. Mor- gan.” Before its collapse, the outfit had grown into the third-largest crypto exchange in the world by volume. [email protected] GET MORE NEWS & COMMENTARY AT MIAMINEWTIMES.COM/NEWS “WE ARE A STAPLE IN MIAMI, AND WE THINK THE FANS WOULD BE BEHIND THE IDEA.” A long-tailed macaque nursing her baby.
