New trends in wildlife trafficking into California<\/h2>\n
Federal wildlife officials seized 48,793 live animals at the border between 2015 and 2019 \u2014 averaging about 27 per day \u2014 according to a recent report by the U.S.-based nonprofit Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). Aquatic animals, including corals, fish, crustaceans, mollusks, amphibians and turtles topped the list of those most seized, while live reptiles were the most confiscated by number of cases.<\/p>\n
Data for subsequent years isn\u2019t publicly available, but AZA told Mongabay there has been a staggering 50% increase from the previous report. USFWS seized 72,989 live animals at the border from 2019 through June 2025. Some 26,296 animals \u2014 nearly a third \u2014 were protected species, it said.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s been a concerning shift in what\u2019s coming in. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing an increase of primate trafficking, and in particular, Mexican spider monkeys,\u201d said Sara Walker, senior adviser for wildlife trafficking at AZA.<\/p>\n
One example is an incident that occurred in January 2025, when California Highway Patrol officers pulled over a speeding Rolls-Royce and discovered a 1-month-old spider monkey wearing a onesie in the car. The driver, Ali Mused Adel Mohamed, was arrested, and the monkey, nicknamed \u201cMarcel,\u201d is now being cared for at the Oakland Zoo.<\/p>\n
Then, in May, Solano County deputies arrested 50-year-old Clifford Vincenty in Vallejo, California, after finding methamphetamine in his vehicle, and charged him with possession of a controlled substance. When police arrived at his home with a search warrant the next day, they found drugs, cash, and exotic animals: a baby spider monkey and two live rattlesnakes that were moved to the Oakland Zoo.<\/p>\n
This, Walker said, is new. \u201cIn that first five-year data analysis [2015-19], we had very few mammals at all, and I can tell you that none of those were primates.\u201d<\/p>\n
The dark fate of pet monkeys<\/h2>\n
Nathan Smith, chief of the CDFW\u2019s wildlife trafficking unit, blames social media for fueling the demand for exotic primates, including spider monkeys, with influencers posting pictures with their spider monkeys and other exotic pets.<\/p>\n
Behind the glitz of social media fame lies a ghastly truth: Traffickers kill an entire troop before stealing baby spider monkeys from their fiercely protective mothers. Then they\u2019re transported under what Walker calls \u201cheartbreaking\u201d conditions.\u201d Poachers stuff these infants in bags and suitcases before smuggling them into the U.S. in cars or by plane.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re scared, they\u2019re tiny. You can tell they\u2019re malnourished,\u201d Walker said.<\/p>\n
When they end up in people\u2019s homes as pets, they are doomed for a life of abuse and neglect. Dressed in diapers like human babies, they are fed the wrong food \u2014 often just bananas \u2014 and rarely receive proper veterinary care. Many don\u2019t survive long.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really tragic \u2014 the plight of the spider monkeys as they come into the U.S. and what happens to them,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n For decades, illegal wildlife trade has been among the world\u2019s largest criminal activities. It\u2019s a lucrative enterprise, worth an estimated $20 billion each year, according to Interpol. This trade is often run by international syndicates, entwined with other illegal activities: gun, drug and human trafficking.<\/p>\n Smith confirmed that this is often the case in California. \u201cWe do find [animals] hand in hand being trafficked with narcotics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Authorities have also seen an increase in live parrots, macaws and other protected neotropical birds smuggled from South and Central America into California. It\u2019s more common during the spring, when eggs and young birds are plentiful: They can be smuggled easily compared with adult birds. To evade detection, the chicks are sedated and their wings taped so they don\u2019t make noise and attract attention.<\/p>\n Walker has observed their perilous journey firsthand. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing an uptick in neonatal birds. They\u2019re coming in younger and younger,\u201d she said, adding that some are just babies and don\u2019t even have their feathers yet.<\/p>\n \u201c[It\u2019s] heartbreaking because they\u2019re so young and they\u2019re in such rough shape. Their immune systems are so weak, and the transport conditions are so horrific for these trafficked animals, that we see a very high mortality rate with birds.\u201d<\/p>\n Live turtles, lizards and snakes are also coming into California in huge numbers, including growing numbers of venomous king cobras (Ophiophagus hannah), rattlesnakes, tree vipers and spitting vipers. Smith said the demand for these snakes has increased over the last eight years. California also serves as a transit hub for turtles, which are then shipped to Southeast Asia, where they are both eaten and kept as pets.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s not just charismatic animals that are flowing into the state. California also has a booming invertebrate trade. There\u2019s a long list of desired species: praying mantises, tarantulas, Hercules beetles (Dynastes hercules), live corals and Chinese mitten crabs (Eriocheir sinensis), to name a few. They are shipped in huge numbers, often via overnight carriers, according to Larison. She noted that her agency saw this method take off during the pandemic, when other ways of smuggling came to a halt.<\/p>\n California has also seen an increase in sea cucumber trafficking from Mexico and other parts of South and Central America. They are dried and sent to Southeast Asia, where they are a pricey culinary delicacy. A 2022 study found that between 2011 and 2021, U.S. and Mexican authorities seized more than 100 tons of sea cucumbers, valued at an estimated $29.5 million, though many species are protected under CITES.<\/p>\n California is the most populous state in the U.S. and the world\u2019s fourth-largest economy. Movement of people and goods is massive, making it easy for traffickers to smuggle wildlife.<\/p>\n Los Angeles hosts one of the nation\u2019s busiest airports: Nearly 1,500 flights touch ground and take off every day. Then there are the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, regional hubs for international shipping and two of the busiest ports in the nation. More than 100 million tons of cargo, worth some $400 billion, entered and left the country in 2023 through these ports. One of the country\u2019s four international postal facilities is also in California.<\/p>\n US Fish and Wildlife Service personnel are tasked with inspecting imports at airports and ports nationwide. One reason why enforcement is so difficult is the sheer volume of cargo coming into the state: \u201cIt\u2019s pretty busy here,\u201d Larison said.<\/p>\n But the agency is also severely understaffed and underfunded, Walker said. \u201cIt\u2019s astonishing how few inspectors and agents they have compared to what is coming in. \u2026 We need more inspectors. We need more agents,\u201d she said. The situation could worsen substantially with passage of the 2026 budget: It requests a 33% cut to the USFWS.<\/p>\n There were just 215 special agents and 113 wildlife inspectors on the job in 2019, according to the Office of Law Enforcement\u2019s 2019 report, the latest available. Those numbers may have dropped due to the Trump administration\u2019s layoffs: In February, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fired about 5% of its workforce, about 420 employees and more layoffs may be pending.<\/p>\n The state also shares a 3,145 kilometer-long (1,954 mile-long) border with Mexico. More than a million commercial trucks crossed the border at Otay Mesa in 2023, and more than 15 million cars entered the state at San Ysidro \u2014 the busiest border crossing in the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we\u2019ve got a lot of land sitting underneath us with a lot of wildlife, and it all comes up through the southern border,\u201d Walker said.<\/p>\n Conversations about wildlife trafficking often revolve around the impact on high-demand species, but smuggled animals also pose a huge risk to both ecosystems and public health. As a global biodiversity hotspot, home to more than 7,500 species \u2014 many of them endemic, living here and nowhere else \u2014 California is especially at risk.<\/p>\n Many exotic birds brought into the state as pets have escaped or were released, settling in as invasive species that outcompete and threaten natives. The red-whiskered bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus), an Asian songbird, and a few species of neotropical parrots are on that list.<\/p>\n Chinese mitten crabs, named for their hairy, mitten-like claws, are usually smuggled live during the Chinese New Year. They have inflicted catastrophic damage on California\u2019s freshwater and estuarine ecosystems and infrastructure. This crab outcompetes native species for food and may spread disease: It eats fish eggs and destroys dykes, levees and riverbanks by burrowing around infrastructure.<\/p>\n A recent study found that many of the live animals that are legally imported into the U.S., including venomous reptiles and fish, have a high risk of becoming invasive.<\/p>\n Lieutenant Logan Garber, an enforcement officer with CDFW, gave another example. The non-native Caulerpa algae, used in the aquarium trade for filtering water, has invaded both Newport Bay and San Diego Bay, carpeting the seafloor and smothering native seagrasses which act as the ocean\u2019s fish nurseries. It cost millions of dollars to clean it up, Garber said. Divers had to physically pick up every plant from the bottom. He marveled that \u201csomething that small could cause so much environmental damage.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe invasive species are probably our biggest, most significant concern, whether that be snails [or] quagga mussels, invasive species of that nature,\u201d his colleague Smith added.<\/p>\n Trafficked animals sometimes carry pathogens that both native wildlife and humans may have no resistance to, passing zoonotic diseases that jump between wildlife, livestock and humans. Turtles have a high risk of carrying the infectious Salmonella bacteria, which causes severe intestinal issues in humans. Birds can spread deadly avian flu among wild populations, poultry and a wide range of mammals.<\/p>\n Since California is rich in wildlife, some of its own species are targeted by poachers. Plant thieves have targeted Dudleya succulents, trendy houseplants that are particularly popular in Asia. One perpetrator, 46-year-old South Korean national Byungsu Kim, was busted with some 3,700 dudleya plants he stole from California\u2019s state parks worth up to $600,000. He may be one of the world\u2019s most notorious houseplant poachers.<\/p>\n Various cacti, orchids and other rare plants are also smuggled for the ornamental plant trade. From 2015 to 2020, USFWS intercepted approximately 2,000 individual cacti. That number quadrupled to more than 8,000 during the following five years, according to USFWS data.<\/p>\n \u201cThese particular cacti species are very, very slow-growing species, so it\u2019s challenging to grow them in a lab setting,\u201d Larison from USFWS said, adding that traffickers instead \u201cpluck them from the border.\u201d<\/p>\n California reptiles, including desert tortoises and rattlesnakes, such as sidewinders, are also frequent trafficking victims.<\/p>\n As with most criminal activity, precise data about the scale of trafficking are unavailable. What we do know comes from seizure data, which can be interpreted in various ways. A higher number of incidents may mean that trafficking is on the rise. But on the other hand, better enforcement also yields more seizures, making it tricky to interpret the data.<\/p>\n Besides, criminals are always shifting routes, trading different species, alive and in parts, and innovating new methods to smuggle them. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of effort taken by traffickers to make sure that the animals are not detectable,\u201d Kessler from IFAW said, adding that live animals are more easily discovered than wildlife products. \u201cSo it\u2019s kind of hard to compare what is seized versus what is actually coming over [the border].\u201d<\/p>\n Authorities also don\u2019t know what percentage of the cross-border trade includes live animals. Most live animals are thought to come from South and Central America, but their exact origin and intended destination are often unknown. Data are sketchy, since animals are often smuggled along circuitous routes.<\/p>\n Despite social media platforms\u2019 policies banning wildlife trade, animals are increasingly sold online. Tracking these sales is difficult, especially when they happen over closed Facebook groups, Kessler said. \u201cIf you\u2019re looking at online sales, a lot of times, sellers will offer them for sale across state lines.\u201d Interstate transport or trade of endangered species without permits is illegal in the U.S.<\/p>\n California\u2019s high volume of wildlife seizures inspired the launch of the Wildlife Confiscations Network in 2023 \u2014 a first-of-its-kind coalition of trusted animal care facilities. The network has already placed more than 4,600 animals into quality care, including more than 100 spider monkeys, in Southern California.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really a crisis-driven response,\u201d Walker from AZA said, adding that it stemmed from authorities\u2019 recognition that seized wildlife usually need immediate, expert attention. \u201cKnowing that they have support for care and placement allows [authorities] \u2026 to seize no matter what the taxa is, how many there are, what time of day it is,\u201d Walker said.<\/p>\n The network is a pilot program, and lawmakers are pushing to expand it nationwide with a bill, the Wildlife Confiscations Network Act of 2025, that was introduced in May but has not yet come up for a vote. If passed, it will appropriate $5 million yearly through 2030 to establish and operate animal care facilities across the U.S.<\/p>\n The USFWS, for its part, runs periodic, focused operations targeting specific species or trends, which means the agency must keep up with technology and social media, Larison noted. For instance, when Chinese mitten crab smuggling became a troubling pattern, the agency launched Operation Mitten Catcher and prevented the import of more than 15,000 crabs.<\/p>\n In addition to collaborations with customs agents, the USFWS also works with inspectors from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and state agencies to combat trafficking. \u201cThe more eyes that you have in the field, the more ears that you have in the field, the more knowledge that you have in the field, the more effective you can be,\u201d Larison said.<\/p>\n In California, lawmakers proposed an amendment to the California Fish and Game Code to make it illegal to sell or trade wildlife that is procured illegally in its source country, similar to the Lacey Act, a federal law that prohibits the import, trade, transport and sale of any wildlife taken illegally anywhere in the world. The California initiative was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom in fall 2025 and goes into effect in January.<\/p>\n CDFW is also trying to persuade attorneys in California to impose stronger penalties for wildlife traffickers under state laws. In one high-profile case prosecuted in March 2025, three offenders were fined between $605 and $1,865 after being caught with a green sea turtle skull, several taxidermied mountain lions, a wolverine, a ringtail cat and owl parts \u2014 all protected under California law \u2014 and illegally harvested deer. This ruling fell exponentially short of the maximum federal penalty for wildlife trafficking: 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.<\/p>\n Organizations such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the global conservation agency, have recognized that the wildlife pet trade is a \u201cmajor threat\u201d to conservation and must be stopped. In its 2025 World Conservation Congress, where conservationists, experts and decisionmakers gather every four years, IUCN passed a motion calling on countries to develop global guidelines to manage the out-of-control pet trade in wild species.<\/p>\n To address the trade in spider monkeys and other nonhuman primates, the Captive Primate Public Safety Act was introduced into the U.S. Senate in April 2024. The stalled bill would have banned private ownership of all primates nationwide.<\/p>\n One crucial way to combat wildlife trafficking is by reducing demand: The public can play a big role by not buying exotic pets, such as spider monkeys and other primates, experts say.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no world in which a baby spider monkey needs to be adopted,\u201d Walker said. \u201cIt\u2019s not legitimate. It\u2019s not adoption. It\u2019s murder and trafficking.\u201d<\/p>\n While scrolling through videos of monkeys or tarantulas on social media might be fascinating, it can inadvertently fuel the trafficking problem. \u201cDon\u2019t \u2018like\u2019 and \u2018follow\u2019 that person that has the illegal animal,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThe more following they get, the more advertising they get, the more it creates that demand for that animal.\u201d<\/p>\n The public can also help authorities by being watchful of what they see around them, and if something seems off, calling the CALTIP hotline to report concerning activity.<\/p>\n With rapidly shifting trends in wildlife trafficking \u2014 and traffickers using technology to outsmart authorities \u2014 it\u2019s a constant challenge for law enforcement. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of whack-a-mole,\u201d Smith said. Traffickers quickly move on from one species to another to stay in business, and officers must be vigilant to discover the next species on their list. \u201cOur officers [must] be extremely resilient.\u201d<\/p>\n Marshall, B. M., Alamshah, A. L., Cardoso, P., Cassey, P., Chekunov, S., Eskew, E. A., . . . Hughes, A. C. (2025). The magnitude of legal wildlife trade and implications for species survival. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(2). doi:10.1073\/pnas.2410774121<\/p>\n Pires, S. F., Thomson, R. W., Petrossian, G. A., & Sosnowski, M. C. (2023). A Social Network Analysis of Large-Scale Wildlife Seizures made at US Ports of Entry. Deviant Behavior, 44(8), 1237\u20131250. doi:10.1080\/01639625.2023.2169211<\/p>\n Anagnostou, M. (2024). Disentangling and Demystifying Illegal Wildlife Trade and Crime Convergence (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada. https:\/\/uwspace.uwaterloo.ca\/items\/8a94f83d-7947-4a03-8b15-9750bb0b2e4c<\/p>\n Anagnostou, M., & Van uhm, D. (2025). The Links between Human Trafficking and Wildlife Trafficking. In Ecoviolence Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/books\/abs\/ecoviolence-studies\/links-between-human-trafficking-and-wildlife-trafficking\/1E4115B82CE8D569259C99CC2FD6C66A<\/p>\nWildlife: a lucrative commodity<\/h2>\n
A hotspot for wildlife trade<\/h2>\n
How wildlife trafficking harms California\u2019s biodiversity<\/h2>\n
What we don\u2019t know about California\u2019s wildlife black market<\/h2>\n
What authorities are doing about wildlife trafficking<\/h2>\n
How can the public help?<\/h2>\n
Citations:<\/h2>\n