Houston woman sentenced after illegally selling spider monkey and toucans on Craigslist

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A Houston woman has received a sentence for unlawfully selling wild animals, including a monkey and exotic birds, as stated by U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani.

Savannah Nicole Valdez, aged 21, has been sentenced to 15 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release after pleading guilty.

Previously, Valdez had been sentenced to two years of supervised release for smuggling a monkey into the United States on a high-speed flight from an immigration checkpoint. This sentence has been revoked and replaced with an additional month in prison.

In the summer of 2023, authorities discovered multiple Craigslist posts advertising keel-billed toucans and yellow-headed Amazon parrots for sale, both of which are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Initial investigations revealed that the contact number listed for the animals matched Valdez’s personal cell phone number.

Undercover authorities arranged the sale of two keel-billed toucans and a Mexican spider monkey, officials reported.

Valdez’s mother sold the toucans at Memorial City Mall in Houston for $3,000 on July 28, 2023, and confessed that her daughter had organized the sale.

On Aug. 1, 2023, Valdez orchestrated the sale of a Mexican spider monkey for $8,500 and had her sister deliver it on her behalf.

The animals have since been relocated to zoos within Texas.

U.S. Attorney Hamdani stated, “When Savannah Valdez sold a Mexican spider monkey, she contributed to endangering a species.” He emphasized the brutal methods used in trafficking infant spider monkeys, resulting in the needless death and suffering of endangered animals. Hamdani added that Valdez’s actions sustained an illicit market that perpetuated this cruelty.

Valdez is permitted to remain on bond and is expected to surrender voluntarily to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility in the near future, officials confirmed.