Monkey business
Monkey business
Article from Southeast Asia Globe
'Cambodian officials charged with wildlife trafficking, a ‘wake-up call’ for global monkey trade'
'En route to a meeting about protecting threatened species, a government official was arrested for smuggling endangered monkeys, raising questions about Cambodia’s breeding industry'
https://southeastasiaglobe.com/cambodia ... m=referral
'Cambodian officials charged with wildlife trafficking, a ‘wake-up call’ for global monkey trade'
'En route to a meeting about protecting threatened species, a government official was arrested for smuggling endangered monkeys, raising questions about Cambodia’s breeding industry'
https://southeastasiaglobe.com/cambodia ... m=referral
"Not my circus, not my monkeys" - KiR
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That’s like the Australian mayor who crashed and was arrested and found to be (5?) times over the limit on her drive home after a zoom call with relatives of those killed in drink driving accidents.
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I heard that enslaved monkeys are working as coconut pickers in Thailand, and that the monkey slave drivers are supplying the barang food delivery company HelloFresh with the coconut milk.
However, I don't think they are getting the monkeys from Cambodian officials. They keep female monkeys sex slaves for breeding.
I just feel sorry for the woke vegan millennial hipsters who are now complicit in the monkey slave and sex trafficking trade because they ordered the ingredients for a Thai green curry.
However, I don't think they are getting the monkeys from Cambodian officials. They keep female monkeys sex slaves for breeding.
I just feel sorry for the woke vegan millennial hipsters who are now complicit in the monkey slave and sex trafficking trade because they ordered the ingredients for a Thai green curry.
Haven't yet read the Globe article, but heard the news.
The Vanny Bio-Research Corporation, 7 km East of Pursat, 2 km East of the new Pursat ring road/Natl. Rt 5 junction, currently has buildings spread over about 35 hectares. It expanded very rapidly about 15 years ago, to justify the 'bred in captivity' export numbers, but grew slowly 2012-2021. I guess most ARE now captive bred. (Healthcare, schools, etc.) Check it out on Google Earth.
Monkey business is BIG business, at least for a small country.
The Vanny Bio-Research Corporation, 7 km East of Pursat, 2 km East of the new Pursat ring road/Natl. Rt 5 junction, currently has buildings spread over about 35 hectares. It expanded very rapidly about 15 years ago, to justify the 'bred in captivity' export numbers, but grew slowly 2012-2021. I guess most ARE now captive bred. (Healthcare, schools, etc.) Check it out on Google Earth.
Monkey business is BIG business, at least for a small country.
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Charles River gets DoJ subpoena on Cambodian supply of lab monkeys
Feb 22 (Reuters) - Charles River Laboratories (CRL.N) said on Wednesday that it had received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice over an investigation into the supply of non-human primates from Cambodia, which are a part of the animal research services that the company offers to drug developers.
Shares of the company were down 12.4% at $213.34.
The DoJ had in November charged members of an international primate smuggling ring with multiple felonies for their role in bringing wild long-tailed macaques into the United States.
Charles River expects constraints on the supply of monkeys to reduce its consolidated revenue growth forecast by about 200 to 400 basis points this year. The company on Wednesday forecast revenue growth of 1.5% to 4.5% for 2023.
Long-tailed macaques are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and require special permits in order to be imported into the United States.
The company also said it had also voluntarily suspended shipments of non-human primates from Cambodia at this time.
In November last year, contract drug researcher Inotiv Inc (NOTV.O) disclosed that executives at its main supplier in Cambodia were charged with violations of U.S. endangered species law for illegally importing non-human primates.
Non-human primates are essential in animal models in biomedical research.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/charle ... 023-02-22/
Feb 22 (Reuters) - Charles River Laboratories (CRL.N) said on Wednesday that it had received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice over an investigation into the supply of non-human primates from Cambodia, which are a part of the animal research services that the company offers to drug developers.
Shares of the company were down 12.4% at $213.34.
The DoJ had in November charged members of an international primate smuggling ring with multiple felonies for their role in bringing wild long-tailed macaques into the United States.
Charles River expects constraints on the supply of monkeys to reduce its consolidated revenue growth forecast by about 200 to 400 basis points this year. The company on Wednesday forecast revenue growth of 1.5% to 4.5% for 2023.
Long-tailed macaques are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and require special permits in order to be imported into the United States.
The company also said it had also voluntarily suspended shipments of non-human primates from Cambodia at this time.
In November last year, contract drug researcher Inotiv Inc (NOTV.O) disclosed that executives at its main supplier in Cambodia were charged with violations of U.S. endangered species law for illegally importing non-human primates.
Non-human primates are essential in animal models in biomedical research.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/charle ... 023-02-22/
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How a Cambodian monkey-smuggling ring could worsen U.S. lab shortages
An ongoing shortage of monkeys used in scientific and medical experiments is about to get worse, as fallout continues from a federal investigation into an alleged primate-smuggling ring in Cambodia.
Several major companies are warning of supply constraints, delays and higher prices that they say could eventually lead to bottlenecks in drug testing. However, industry analysts have expressed skepticism that the situation in Cambodia will have major impacts on research, with one saying “this is just going to be another handful of sand in the gears.”
Nonhuman primates are used to test experimental drugs and vaccines before they enter human trials, and to probe fundamental questions about the aging brain and infectious diseases. Nationally funded primate research centers maintain domestic colonies for biomedical research, but about 30,000 are imported each year to meet demand.
Cambodia has emerged as the largest international source of monkeys used in U.S. research, after China stopped exporting primates during the pandemic. Imported monkeys must meet various international and U.S. regulatory requirements. The investigation into Cambodian monkeys centers on the question of whether they were bred in captivity, as permits stated.
In November, eight people, including two Cambodian government officials, were indicted on charges of allegedly capturing wild long-tailed macaques, which are endangered, from national parks and protected areas and falsifying permits amid a shortage of monkeys at the breeding facilities. As the investigation continues, shipments of primates from Cambodia have been paused.
The disruptions come on top of an already strained supply of laboratory monkeys in the United States. Five years ago, a National Institutes of Health study predicted that future demand for nonhuman primates was likely to outstrip supply.
Then the coronavirus pandemic landed and demand soared, as monkeys were needed to test coronavirus vaccines and therapeutics. At the same time, China stopped exporting monkeys, so U.S. suppliers had to scramble to find new sources, shifting much of their business to Cambodia.
“So this has been coming to a head for a while, and the covid pandemic certainly exacerbated it,” said Lyric Jorgenson, acting director of NIH’s Office of Science Policy.
Many different sectors of the biomedical research community use monkeys in research, and they rely on different sources. NIH funds a domestic network of National Primate Research Centers that house about 20,000 monkeys. These are self-sustaining breeding colonies that provide animals primarily for NIH-funded research.
Contract research organizations, such as Charles River Laboratories International, Inotiv and Laboratory Corporation of America, provide primates to drug companies as well as academic and government scientists, and they rely on multiple sources, including international suppliers.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined to provide numbers on how many primates are imported into the United States. A Freedom of Information Act request was not responded to immediately. According to PETA, the country brings in about 30,000 primates each year.
On Feb. 22, Charles River Labs disclosed that it had received a subpoena related to shipments of monkeys from Cambodia and had voluntarily suspended future shipments until it could develop a new protocol that has the U.S. government’s blessing. The company’s shares fell 10 percent that day.
“With regard to Cambodia, where 60 percent of the animals come from, we are all at least temporarily foreclosed from bringing new animals in and utilizing them on studies in the United States,” James C. Foster, chief executive of Charles River Labs, said during an earnings call last week. “This is an industry issue, a relatively profound one, because drugs aren’t going to move through preclinical [stages] and into the clinic.”
Research analysts at investment bank Evercore estimate that, given the supply decrease, Charles River will raise its prices on nonhuman primates this year to $33,000 each, up from $22,000 last year and just $2,500 in 2019.
In the wake of the announcement, animal activists called for an even broader investigation into Charles River and its customers. They reject the idea that there is a shortage of monkeys and argued that the high prices the animals can now command is creating incentive for people to capture wild monkeys.
“The allure for the amount of money that’s now available to catch these monkeys … the folks are going to do it. They’re just going to do it as long as the demand remains, and the price remains at this point,” said PETA senior scientific adviser Lisa Jones-Engel.
Charles River said that the company is committed to ensuring its operations comply with laws and regulations globally and that it is critical to work with the government to resolve the concerns in Cambodia. “The U.S. biopharmaceutical industry and the patients who need new treatments and cures are counting on us,” the company said in a statement, adding that any concerns regarding its practices “are without merit.”
Charles River was just the latest company to come under scrutiny in the Justice Department investigation. In June 2021, two companies that later became subsidiaries of Inotiv received subpoenas regarding their primate imports, following up on grand jury subpoenas each had received in 2019, according to a securities filing. Inotiv has said its main supplier of nonhuman primates was criminally charged in November with illegally importing the animals from Cambodia.
Inotiv brought in $140 million from selling Cambodian monkeys in 2022, a quarter of its revenue, and the company’s stock lost half of its value the day after the Justice Department announced the indictments.
Inotiv said that it would establish new procedures before importing more primates from Cambodia, adding that lawfully securing animals bred for research there was “imperative for the support of critical pharmaceutical development activities in the United States.” Last month, Bob Leasure, chief executive of the Indiana-based company, said that Inotiv had been able to determine that some monkeys imported from Cambodia were “purpose bred” — not illegally smuggled from the wild — and resumed shipping them to customers.
Laboratory Corporation of America, which also supplies primates to biotech and pharmaceutical customers, said last month that delays in procuring primates will hit its revenue by $80 million to $100 million early in the year. The company said that nonhuman primates make up less than 2 percent of its revenue and that it has reached agreements with additional primate vendors.
The expected price increases and delays will have downstream effects. For example, academic researchers and smaller biotech companies that use contract organizations may be less able to absorb the price hikes.
“We’re looking at it as an acute stress upon a chronic situation,” said R. Paul Johnson, director of the Emory National Primate Research Center, which maintains a breeding colony with about 3,400 monkeys. The center has four tiers of priority, supplying animals to researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health before other government-funded scientists, foundations and finally pharmaceutical companies.
Skip Bohm, chief veterinary medical officer and associate director of the Tulane National Primate Research Center, said that it is a struggle to even meet the demand from the first priority tier.
“The first thing to recognize is there may not be enough animals or resources to get to the bottom of that list,” Bohm said. The waiting time for NIH-funded researchers who get first priority “can be three months, or up to a year or more, depending on the type of animal.”
Part of the challenge is that long-term planning is essential for biomedical research involving primates, because resources can’t be increased overnight to respond to an emergency such as a pandemic. Emory’s Johnson gave the example of rhesus macaques, a key animal used in scientific research that breeds seasonally in the fall and gives birth in the spring. Mature animals are often needed for experiments, and females may be needed to continue sustaining the population.
“The process of breeding rhesus macaques requires a long-term investment. Decisions we make now won’t have an impact for four to five years from now,” Johnson said.
But it’s equally important to make sure that there isn’t a wasteful surplus of the animals, NIH’s Jorgenson said.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine is currently conducting a review of the state of science for primate research, including examining questions about how to reduce reliance on animals. A report is expected to be released this summer.
In the short term, the interruptions stemming from investigations into Cambodian suppliers may be par for the course in an industry that has had to scramble repeatedly to find new sources of animals or work around supply disruptions. Over the years, major airlines have stopped carrying the animals, for example.
“It’s not like there’s this massive sea change in ability to do preclinical work that’s just happened today,” Jon Miller, an Evercore analyst, said on the firm’s podcast. He said it will probably take a couple of years for the backlog to fully resolve itself.
“In the meantime,” he said, “we shouldn’t expect new drug pipelines to suddenly come to a screeching halt because of this issue.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/ ... -research/
An ongoing shortage of monkeys used in scientific and medical experiments is about to get worse, as fallout continues from a federal investigation into an alleged primate-smuggling ring in Cambodia.
Several major companies are warning of supply constraints, delays and higher prices that they say could eventually lead to bottlenecks in drug testing. However, industry analysts have expressed skepticism that the situation in Cambodia will have major impacts on research, with one saying “this is just going to be another handful of sand in the gears.”
Nonhuman primates are used to test experimental drugs and vaccines before they enter human trials, and to probe fundamental questions about the aging brain and infectious diseases. Nationally funded primate research centers maintain domestic colonies for biomedical research, but about 30,000 are imported each year to meet demand.
Cambodia has emerged as the largest international source of monkeys used in U.S. research, after China stopped exporting primates during the pandemic. Imported monkeys must meet various international and U.S. regulatory requirements. The investigation into Cambodian monkeys centers on the question of whether they were bred in captivity, as permits stated.
In November, eight people, including two Cambodian government officials, were indicted on charges of allegedly capturing wild long-tailed macaques, which are endangered, from national parks and protected areas and falsifying permits amid a shortage of monkeys at the breeding facilities. As the investigation continues, shipments of primates from Cambodia have been paused.
The disruptions come on top of an already strained supply of laboratory monkeys in the United States. Five years ago, a National Institutes of Health study predicted that future demand for nonhuman primates was likely to outstrip supply.
Then the coronavirus pandemic landed and demand soared, as monkeys were needed to test coronavirus vaccines and therapeutics. At the same time, China stopped exporting monkeys, so U.S. suppliers had to scramble to find new sources, shifting much of their business to Cambodia.
“So this has been coming to a head for a while, and the covid pandemic certainly exacerbated it,” said Lyric Jorgenson, acting director of NIH’s Office of Science Policy.
Many different sectors of the biomedical research community use monkeys in research, and they rely on different sources. NIH funds a domestic network of National Primate Research Centers that house about 20,000 monkeys. These are self-sustaining breeding colonies that provide animals primarily for NIH-funded research.
Contract research organizations, such as Charles River Laboratories International, Inotiv and Laboratory Corporation of America, provide primates to drug companies as well as academic and government scientists, and they rely on multiple sources, including international suppliers.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined to provide numbers on how many primates are imported into the United States. A Freedom of Information Act request was not responded to immediately. According to PETA, the country brings in about 30,000 primates each year.
On Feb. 22, Charles River Labs disclosed that it had received a subpoena related to shipments of monkeys from Cambodia and had voluntarily suspended future shipments until it could develop a new protocol that has the U.S. government’s blessing. The company’s shares fell 10 percent that day.
“With regard to Cambodia, where 60 percent of the animals come from, we are all at least temporarily foreclosed from bringing new animals in and utilizing them on studies in the United States,” James C. Foster, chief executive of Charles River Labs, said during an earnings call last week. “This is an industry issue, a relatively profound one, because drugs aren’t going to move through preclinical [stages] and into the clinic.”
Research analysts at investment bank Evercore estimate that, given the supply decrease, Charles River will raise its prices on nonhuman primates this year to $33,000 each, up from $22,000 last year and just $2,500 in 2019.
In the wake of the announcement, animal activists called for an even broader investigation into Charles River and its customers. They reject the idea that there is a shortage of monkeys and argued that the high prices the animals can now command is creating incentive for people to capture wild monkeys.
“The allure for the amount of money that’s now available to catch these monkeys … the folks are going to do it. They’re just going to do it as long as the demand remains, and the price remains at this point,” said PETA senior scientific adviser Lisa Jones-Engel.
Charles River said that the company is committed to ensuring its operations comply with laws and regulations globally and that it is critical to work with the government to resolve the concerns in Cambodia. “The U.S. biopharmaceutical industry and the patients who need new treatments and cures are counting on us,” the company said in a statement, adding that any concerns regarding its practices “are without merit.”
Charles River was just the latest company to come under scrutiny in the Justice Department investigation. In June 2021, two companies that later became subsidiaries of Inotiv received subpoenas regarding their primate imports, following up on grand jury subpoenas each had received in 2019, according to a securities filing. Inotiv has said its main supplier of nonhuman primates was criminally charged in November with illegally importing the animals from Cambodia.
Inotiv brought in $140 million from selling Cambodian monkeys in 2022, a quarter of its revenue, and the company’s stock lost half of its value the day after the Justice Department announced the indictments.
Inotiv said that it would establish new procedures before importing more primates from Cambodia, adding that lawfully securing animals bred for research there was “imperative for the support of critical pharmaceutical development activities in the United States.” Last month, Bob Leasure, chief executive of the Indiana-based company, said that Inotiv had been able to determine that some monkeys imported from Cambodia were “purpose bred” — not illegally smuggled from the wild — and resumed shipping them to customers.
Laboratory Corporation of America, which also supplies primates to biotech and pharmaceutical customers, said last month that delays in procuring primates will hit its revenue by $80 million to $100 million early in the year. The company said that nonhuman primates make up less than 2 percent of its revenue and that it has reached agreements with additional primate vendors.
The expected price increases and delays will have downstream effects. For example, academic researchers and smaller biotech companies that use contract organizations may be less able to absorb the price hikes.
“We’re looking at it as an acute stress upon a chronic situation,” said R. Paul Johnson, director of the Emory National Primate Research Center, which maintains a breeding colony with about 3,400 monkeys. The center has four tiers of priority, supplying animals to researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health before other government-funded scientists, foundations and finally pharmaceutical companies.
Skip Bohm, chief veterinary medical officer and associate director of the Tulane National Primate Research Center, said that it is a struggle to even meet the demand from the first priority tier.
“The first thing to recognize is there may not be enough animals or resources to get to the bottom of that list,” Bohm said. The waiting time for NIH-funded researchers who get first priority “can be three months, or up to a year or more, depending on the type of animal.”
Part of the challenge is that long-term planning is essential for biomedical research involving primates, because resources can’t be increased overnight to respond to an emergency such as a pandemic. Emory’s Johnson gave the example of rhesus macaques, a key animal used in scientific research that breeds seasonally in the fall and gives birth in the spring. Mature animals are often needed for experiments, and females may be needed to continue sustaining the population.
“The process of breeding rhesus macaques requires a long-term investment. Decisions we make now won’t have an impact for four to five years from now,” Johnson said.
But it’s equally important to make sure that there isn’t a wasteful surplus of the animals, NIH’s Jorgenson said.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine is currently conducting a review of the state of science for primate research, including examining questions about how to reduce reliance on animals. A report is expected to be released this summer.
In the short term, the interruptions stemming from investigations into Cambodian suppliers may be par for the course in an industry that has had to scramble repeatedly to find new sources of animals or work around supply disruptions. Over the years, major airlines have stopped carrying the animals, for example.
“It’s not like there’s this massive sea change in ability to do preclinical work that’s just happened today,” Jon Miller, an Evercore analyst, said on the firm’s podcast. He said it will probably take a couple of years for the backlog to fully resolve itself.
“In the meantime,” he said, “we shouldn’t expect new drug pipelines to suddenly come to a screeching halt because of this issue.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/ ... -research/
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HOUSTON, Texas––Twelve hundred illegally imported wild-caught long-tailed macaques at last report were still waiting at a Charles River Laboratory warehouse near Houston for Charles River Laboratories, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and potential sanctuary caretakers to decide what will become of them.
As recently as March 15, 2023 the macaques were apparently in imminent danger of being flown back to the Cambodian dealers who allegedly had them captured for sale to Charles River Laboratories. This would almost certainly put the macaques back into the international laboratory supply traffic, at financial benefit to the dealers, who would thereby be enabled to sell the same macaques twice.
Continues at length:https://www.animals24-7.org/2023/03/19/ ... i-temples/
As recently as March 15, 2023 the macaques were apparently in imminent danger of being flown back to the Cambodian dealers who allegedly had them captured for sale to Charles River Laboratories. This would almost certainly put the macaques back into the international laboratory supply traffic, at financial benefit to the dealers, who would thereby be enabled to sell the same macaques twice.
Continues at length:https://www.animals24-7.org/2023/03/19/ ... i-temples/
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So reading rest of article, it alludes to the likelihood these macaques have been taken from a temple in Thailand, trafficked to Cambodia and sold as captive-bred. Nothing surprises me anymore.
Unfortunately, these 1200 animals will probably be euthanized.
Unfortunately, these 1200 animals will probably be euthanized.
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Monkey business is big business, it would appear.
https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/ ... 13033.html
https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/ ... 13033.html
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^ Not a good look for the kingdom this monkey biz.
Monkey cages are seen on the grounds of a farm co-owned by Hun Sengny the sister of the Cambodian Prime Minister in rural Kampong Speu province, March 2023. [RFA]
Monkey cages are seen on the grounds of a farm co-owned by Hun Sengny the sister of the Cambodian Prime Minister in rural Kampong Speu province, March 2023. [RFA]
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The former head of Cambodia’s Department of Wildlife and Biodiversity should not be held responsible for illegally smuggling research monkeys because he was acting on orders of his government and not in a personal capacity, his lawyers have argued in a U.S. government case against him.
Moreover, the U.S. case against Masphal Kry is tantamount to an attack on the Cambodian government, his defense lawyers argued, calling the indictment “a full-on assault on a foreign ministry.”
U.S. Justice Department officials said Kry and seven other individuals were running a smuggling operation involving hundreds of long-tail macaques - a primate key for medical studies - poached from the wild in Cambodia and shipped illegally to the U.S.
Kry, who has been under house arrest since he was apprehended at New York’s JFK airport in November 2022, made his first court appearance at an evidentiary hearing in Miami on Friday.
Officials in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida have accused Kry of taking monkeys from the national parks and other locations in Cambodia and then falsifying permits, making it seem as though the animals had been raised in a breeding facility - the only legal place where the research primates can be sourced from.
The prosecutors accused him of being part of a conspiracy in which monkeys were sold with inaccurate export permits to the U.S. The prosecutors accused Kry and his associates of trying to make it seem as though the monkeys had been bred in captivity, when in fact the monkeys had been caught in the wild.
Prosecutors said that Kry and his associates concocted a scheme to sell the monkeys. He and his associates have each been charged with seven counts of smuggling and one count of conspiracy.
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambod ... 82723.html
Moreover, the U.S. case against Masphal Kry is tantamount to an attack on the Cambodian government, his defense lawyers argued, calling the indictment “a full-on assault on a foreign ministry.”
U.S. Justice Department officials said Kry and seven other individuals were running a smuggling operation involving hundreds of long-tail macaques - a primate key for medical studies - poached from the wild in Cambodia and shipped illegally to the U.S.
Kry, who has been under house arrest since he was apprehended at New York’s JFK airport in November 2022, made his first court appearance at an evidentiary hearing in Miami on Friday.
Officials in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida have accused Kry of taking monkeys from the national parks and other locations in Cambodia and then falsifying permits, making it seem as though the animals had been raised in a breeding facility - the only legal place where the research primates can be sourced from.
The prosecutors accused him of being part of a conspiracy in which monkeys were sold with inaccurate export permits to the U.S. The prosecutors accused Kry and his associates of trying to make it seem as though the monkeys had been bred in captivity, when in fact the monkeys had been caught in the wild.
Prosecutors said that Kry and his associates concocted a scheme to sell the monkeys. He and his associates have each been charged with seven counts of smuggling and one count of conspiracy.
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambod ... 82723.html
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Not looking good for Kry Masphal
UPDATE- Footage showing a senior Cambodian official communicating with smugglers is part of U.S. case against him
VIDEO: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambod ... 65359.html
Hidden camera footage has emerged showing what U.S. prosecutors say is clear involvement by a senior Cambodian official in running a research monkey smuggling operation.
In the video, whose existence was first reported by RFA last year, former Cambodian Department of Wildlife and Biodiversity head Kry Masphal is seen facilitating an illicit drop-off of long-tailed macaques at a breeding facility in northern Cambodia, even offering advice on how to move the endangered species more efficiently.
“Why don’t you make another road?” Kry is seen asking a worker. “If you make another road, this means [it’s] more safe for your smuggling.”
The footage was filmed in 2019 by a confidential informant for U.S. investigators and submitted by prosecutors as evidence against Kry in a high-profile U.S. government smuggling case against him and other conspirators.
It was obtained from the court by animal rights group PETA, which shared it with RFA.
In aviator sunglasses and a buttoned-down blue checkered shirt, Kry carries himself in the video with a swagger a world apart from the nervous figure who sat in a Miami court two weeks ago listening to his lawyers fight to exclude the contents of his mobile phone from his upcoming trial.
Kry was director of Wildlife and Biodiversity in Cambodia’s Forestry Administration at the time of his arrest at New York’s JFK airport in November 2022, where he was transiting on his way to a conference in Panama on the protection of endangered species.
He has been charged with being party to a plot to launder wild-caught long-tailed macaques - a primate prized for medical research - from the jungles of Cambodia and Thailand into U.S. research laboratories.
In part to conserve dwindling wild populations, but also to preserve the integrity of scientific findings, only captive-bred monkeys can be used in medical experiments.
Also accused are Kry’s boss, Forestry Administration Director General Keo Omaliss and six individuals involved in the management of the Chinese-owned Vanny Group’s monkey farms in Cambodia.
Kry has pleaded not guilty, while the Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture, which oversees the Forestry Administration, and the Vanny Group have both denied any improper activity took place.
However, the video that has emerged among a mountainous pile of evidence against Kry contains damning proof of his involvement and acknowledges the illegal nature of the operation.
UPDATE- Footage showing a senior Cambodian official communicating with smugglers is part of U.S. case against him
VIDEO: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambod ... 65359.html
Hidden camera footage has emerged showing what U.S. prosecutors say is clear involvement by a senior Cambodian official in running a research monkey smuggling operation.
In the video, whose existence was first reported by RFA last year, former Cambodian Department of Wildlife and Biodiversity head Kry Masphal is seen facilitating an illicit drop-off of long-tailed macaques at a breeding facility in northern Cambodia, even offering advice on how to move the endangered species more efficiently.
“Why don’t you make another road?” Kry is seen asking a worker. “If you make another road, this means [it’s] more safe for your smuggling.”
The footage was filmed in 2019 by a confidential informant for U.S. investigators and submitted by prosecutors as evidence against Kry in a high-profile U.S. government smuggling case against him and other conspirators.
It was obtained from the court by animal rights group PETA, which shared it with RFA.
In aviator sunglasses and a buttoned-down blue checkered shirt, Kry carries himself in the video with a swagger a world apart from the nervous figure who sat in a Miami court two weeks ago listening to his lawyers fight to exclude the contents of his mobile phone from his upcoming trial.
Kry was director of Wildlife and Biodiversity in Cambodia’s Forestry Administration at the time of his arrest at New York’s JFK airport in November 2022, where he was transiting on his way to a conference in Panama on the protection of endangered species.
He has been charged with being party to a plot to launder wild-caught long-tailed macaques - a primate prized for medical research - from the jungles of Cambodia and Thailand into U.S. research laboratories.
In part to conserve dwindling wild populations, but also to preserve the integrity of scientific findings, only captive-bred monkeys can be used in medical experiments.
Also accused are Kry’s boss, Forestry Administration Director General Keo Omaliss and six individuals involved in the management of the Chinese-owned Vanny Group’s monkey farms in Cambodia.
Kry has pleaded not guilty, while the Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture, which oversees the Forestry Administration, and the Vanny Group have both denied any improper activity took place.
However, the video that has emerged among a mountainous pile of evidence against Kry contains damning proof of his involvement and acknowledges the illegal nature of the operation.
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Cambodian official acquitted of smuggling rare wild monkeys into South Florida
A Cambodian official accused of illegally importing wild, long-tailed macaque monkeys into the United States that were destined for Miami was acquitted Friday of conspiracy and smuggling charges after a two-week federal trial. Masphal Kry, 47, the deputy director of the Department of Wildlife and Biodiversity for the Cambodian Forestry Administration, had been under home confinement in Virginia since his arrest in November 2022 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Now, Kry is back at home with his family in Cambodia. “He should never have been charged, and we are grateful to the jury and the court for seeing that justice was done in this case,” said lead counsel, Mark MacDougall, of Washington, D.C., who worked on Kry’s defense with Coral Gables attorney John Byrne. Kry was the only defendant named in an indictment to face trial in Miami.
Seven other defendants from Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, and Hong Kong, including Kry’s boss, the general director of the Cambodian Forestry Administration, are at large. MONKEYS’ HIGH VALUE Kry was acquitted of the main conspiracy charge and one count of smuggling 360 Macaque monkeys with a declared value of $661,680 into JFK on Aug. 24, 2018. The conspiracy charge carried up to five years in prison and the smuggling charge up to 20 years.
Before a 12-person federal jury reached their unanimous not guilty verdicts, Kry’s lawyers were successful at knocking out one additional smuggling count while prosecutors Thomas Watts-FitzGerald and Emily Stone dropped five others in the trial before U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams. Those dismissed charges alleged the illegal importation of more than 2,200 wild, long-tailed Macaque monkeys worth about $6 million. The charges were dismissed over a lack of evidence.
The rare monkeys, sometimes known as crab-eating macaques, are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which requires special permits to be imported into the United States. The agreement, implemented in the U.S. through the Endangered Species Act, allows signatory members to monitor the trade of rare species such as the macaques. Permits are individually numbered and include detailed information about the shipment, including a source code, which says whether the animal was bred in captivity or taken from the wild — a critical distinction.
The indictment alleged that two Hong Kong businessmen operated a series of corporations that conspired with black market collectors and corrupt officials in Cambodia to acquire wild-caught macaques and export them to the United States with labels falsely saying “captive bred,” which can be legally traded. To make up for a shortage of monkeys at breeding facilities in Cambodia, the two businessmen were accused of paying bribes to Cambodian authorities in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) to deliver wild-caught macaques taken from national parks and protected areas in Cambodia, according to the indictment. Between December 2017 and September 2022, Kry was accused of negotiating with the two co-conspirators over the pricing of wild macaques to be captured and delivered to monkey breeding facilities in Cambodia.
The conspiracy, which involved meetings and financial transactions, led to the shipment of about 3,000 wild-caught macaques mixed in with captive-bred ones to Florida and Texas — all with falsified permits, according to the indictment. However, the Miami federal jury found that prosecutors failed to make their case — at least concerning Kry’s alleged role in the conspiracy. JAY WEAVER 305-376-3446
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/ ... rylink=cpy
A Cambodian official accused of illegally importing wild, long-tailed macaque monkeys into the United States that were destined for Miami was acquitted Friday of conspiracy and smuggling charges after a two-week federal trial. Masphal Kry, 47, the deputy director of the Department of Wildlife and Biodiversity for the Cambodian Forestry Administration, had been under home confinement in Virginia since his arrest in November 2022 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Now, Kry is back at home with his family in Cambodia. “He should never have been charged, and we are grateful to the jury and the court for seeing that justice was done in this case,” said lead counsel, Mark MacDougall, of Washington, D.C., who worked on Kry’s defense with Coral Gables attorney John Byrne. Kry was the only defendant named in an indictment to face trial in Miami.
Seven other defendants from Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, and Hong Kong, including Kry’s boss, the general director of the Cambodian Forestry Administration, are at large. MONKEYS’ HIGH VALUE Kry was acquitted of the main conspiracy charge and one count of smuggling 360 Macaque monkeys with a declared value of $661,680 into JFK on Aug. 24, 2018. The conspiracy charge carried up to five years in prison and the smuggling charge up to 20 years.
Before a 12-person federal jury reached their unanimous not guilty verdicts, Kry’s lawyers were successful at knocking out one additional smuggling count while prosecutors Thomas Watts-FitzGerald and Emily Stone dropped five others in the trial before U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams. Those dismissed charges alleged the illegal importation of more than 2,200 wild, long-tailed Macaque monkeys worth about $6 million. The charges were dismissed over a lack of evidence.
The rare monkeys, sometimes known as crab-eating macaques, are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which requires special permits to be imported into the United States. The agreement, implemented in the U.S. through the Endangered Species Act, allows signatory members to monitor the trade of rare species such as the macaques. Permits are individually numbered and include detailed information about the shipment, including a source code, which says whether the animal was bred in captivity or taken from the wild — a critical distinction.
The indictment alleged that two Hong Kong businessmen operated a series of corporations that conspired with black market collectors and corrupt officials in Cambodia to acquire wild-caught macaques and export them to the United States with labels falsely saying “captive bred,” which can be legally traded. To make up for a shortage of monkeys at breeding facilities in Cambodia, the two businessmen were accused of paying bribes to Cambodian authorities in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) to deliver wild-caught macaques taken from national parks and protected areas in Cambodia, according to the indictment. Between December 2017 and September 2022, Kry was accused of negotiating with the two co-conspirators over the pricing of wild macaques to be captured and delivered to monkey breeding facilities in Cambodia.
The conspiracy, which involved meetings and financial transactions, led to the shipment of about 3,000 wild-caught macaques mixed in with captive-bred ones to Florida and Texas — all with falsified permits, according to the indictment. However, the Miami federal jury found that prosecutors failed to make their case — at least concerning Kry’s alleged role in the conspiracy. JAY WEAVER 305-376-3446
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/ ... rylink=cpy
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Cambodian monkey exports to Canada for lab tests are surging, fueling health concerns
https://southeastasiaglobe.com/cambodia ... th-canada/
In 2023, U.S. investigators subpoenaed a major U.S.-based pharmaceutical research firm because of exotic monkey shipments it had received from an alleged “international primate smuggling ring” originating from Cambodia.
Charles River Laboratories said it would cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice officials, and suspended shipments of primates to its U.S. labs from Cambodia.
But as one route for the drug-testing monkeys shut down, another opened wider – from Cambodia to Charles River’s labs in Quebec, Canada.
From massive caged enclosures in provinces near Phnom Penh, long-tailed macaques are now being imported into Canada for human drug testing development in unprecedented numbers, an investigation by the Southeast Asia Globe, Pulitzer Center and Toronto Star has found.
Since Charles River’s February 2023 announcement that it would stop monkey imports to the U.S., the value of Canadian imports of these endangered animals has spiked nearly six times to roughly 62 million USD, federal data shows. Charles River is the only registered importer of macaques from Cambodia in all of Canada.
https://southeastasiaglobe.com/cambodia ... th-canada/
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