A driver going through the U.S.-Mexican border on the Gateway International Bridge in Brownsville, Texas, has been accused of unlawfully bringing a spider monkey along for the ride.
On Wednesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents referred a passenger car for a secondary inspection because driver Ilse Georgina Herrera had an expired permanent residency card.
Ms. Herrera, a Brownsville resident, initially said that she had driven her child to Matamoros, Mexico, directly across from Brownsville for a doctor’s appointment.
When CBP officers began taking the car for secondary inspection, an unidentified human passenger wearing a blanket got out, refusing to follow CBP instructions. Upon removing the blanket, CBP officers found a bag containing the monkey.
The passenger told agents that he had just purchased the monkey in Mexico for a friend as a pet. The northern limit of spider monkey populations is in southern Mexico.
Ms. Herrera had a different story for Homeland Security Investigations officers. She claimed that she had taken the monkey to Mexico because it, rather than her child, was sick and in need of medication.
Further inspection purportedly found messages between Ms. Herrera and another person who explained how to successfully smuggle a spider monkey from Mexico into the U.S.
The importation of spider monkeys into America is regulated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of international law regarding protected species. As such, bringing one into the U.S. as a pet or for other non-regulation purposes is illegal.
In addition to the alleged messages regarding smuggling, Ms. Herrera is also accused of lacking the necessary permits to legally import the spider monkey.
After being seized by CBP, the monkey was returned to Mexico.
Ms. Herrera has been charged with conspiring to illegally import wildlife into the United States, and made her first appearance in court Friday, according to local newspaper The Monitor.
