Jerry Atrick wrote: ↑Fri Nov 18, 2022 11:37 am The unnamed man arrested with him is General Keo Omaliss

If the allegations are true then it's remarkable how dumb they were to transit through the USA

Looks like the new era of cooperation that Joey B and H.E ushered in this week is off to a flying start!

Has Keo Omaliss actually been arrested rather than just indicted?

Bluenose wrote: ↑Mon Nov 21, 2022 8:30 am

Jerry Atrick wrote: ↑Fri Nov 18, 2022 11:37 am The unnamed man arrested with him is General Keo Omaliss

If the allegations are true then it's remarkable how dumb they were to transit through the USA

Looks like the new era of cooperation that Joey B and H.E ushered in this week is off to a flying start!

Has Keo Omaliss actually been arrested rather than just indicted?

The original reporting was so sloppy, referring to "Officials" but only ever named one offical, Masphal Kry. I haven't read anywhere that Omaliss Keo was with him and was also arrested.

The US media and also the Guardian only refer an "official" and name only Masphal Kry.

Cambodia exports nearly 70,000 monkeys over 3 years


Cambodia News, Phnom Penh: His Excellency Dith Tina, the newly-appointed Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, has confirmed on his personal Twitter account that in the last three years, from 2020 to 2022, Cambodia has exported a total of 68,076 monkeys in accordance with the principles of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention).

The Minister of Agriculture underlined that in 2020, Cambodia exported 22,594 monkeys, 24,206 in 2021 and 21,276 in 2022. Most of Cambodia's monkeys are exported to the United States, with Cambodia exporting a total of 54,045 monkeys to the United States in the last three years.

HE Dith Tina said that the long-tailed macaque monkey (or crab-eating monkey), which the United States considers rare, is well known to the Cambodian people as the Wat Phnom monkey, which is present throughout the country in natural habitats such as forests, as well as in suburbs and cities. However, he said that in terms of exports that comply with the principles of the CITES Convention, only farm-raised monkeys are eligible to be exported for medical experimental research. In addition to environmental concerns, the animals raised for export are required to comply with hygiene standards and proper breeding methods.

in the last three years, from 2020 to 2022, Cambodia has exported a total of 68,076 monkeys.

68,076 @ $4359* each = $296,743,284.


*post571202.html#p571202

John Bingham wrote: ↑Fri Nov 18, 2022 11:10 am

IraHayes wrote: ↑Fri Nov 18, 2022 10:43 am Is it possible he was circumventing official channels to pocket some tea money?
Export a few officially and a few *unofficially*??

That's exactly what was being done. Captive bred exports were being supplemented with illegally caught wild monkeys.

I wonder how they knew in the US that not all were captive bred.

Update
US-Cambodian Monkey-Smuggling Scandal
Repercussions for the US and for Cambodia
The indictment of an alleged monkey-smuggling ring out of Cambodia may have far-reaching repercussions for both the US and Cambodia, resulting in issues that range from delays in drug-safety testing for US pharmaceutical companies, to the (temporary or permanent ) closure of the Cambodian monkey export market.
The US is (by far) Cambodia's main export market for farm-raised nonhuman primates, (such as the long-tailed macaque); Cambodia exported more than 29,000 laboratory monkeys in 2020, the vast majority of which were shipped to the United States.
If the current investigation by the US Department of Justice substantiates the indictment of Cambodian officials, it is possible that the entire Cambodian monkey export trade with the US may be suspended indefinitely.

Indictment of monkey importers could disrupt U.S. drug and vaccine research
Alleged Cambodian smuggling ring poses dangers to wild cynomolgus macaques and the lab studies they’re used in
23 Nov 20224:20 PMByDavid Grimm
[excerpts]
The indictment of several members of an alleged international monkey smuggling ring is sending ripples through the U.S. biomedical community. Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) charged two Cambodian wildlife officials and several members of a Hong Kong-based primate supply company with illegally exporting hundreds—and potentially more than 2000— cynomolgus macaques, an endangered species, to the United States for research. The animals were reportedly captured from the wild in Cambodia and falsely labeled as captive-bred.

The indictment, which carries multiple felony charges, will likely exacerbate the shortage of these monkeys, used in everything from drug safety testing to vaccine research, says Dave O’Connor, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who studies infectious disease in cynomolgus macaques. Still, he says, the main priority should be stopping this illegal trade, both for the science and the animals themselves. “These sorts of unscrupulous actors give a black eye to an already heavily scrutinized industry.”

Nearly 1500 of these “laundered” cynos arrived in the United States from 2018 to 2020, according to the indictment, with potentially hundreds more in 2021. They appear to have ended up at facilities in southern Florida and southern Texas. The companies running the facilities are not named in the indictment, but in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last week, Inotiv disclosed that its principal supplier of nonhuman primates was the target of the DOJ probe, indicating that the company gets most of its monkeys from Vanny.

Last week, the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals asked CDC to suspend all nonhuman primate exports from Cambodia. On Monday, it asked the U.S. National Institutes of Health “to determine the precise origin of every [cyno] imported from Cambodia since 2017 and currently in publicly funded laboratories.”

In a statement released last week, Cambodia’s ministry of agriculture said it was “surprised and saddened” by the indictment, and that it was committed to upholding all laws governing the international trade of animals. It also denied that any of its exported monkeys had been captured from the wild.
Article in full: https://www.science.org/content/article ... e-research

Long read:
Cambodian Officials Charged with Wildlife Trafficking, a ‘Wake-Up Call’ for Global Monkey Trade
GLOBE
Anton Delgado
November 28, 2022
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.

Masphal Kry was en route to an international meeting about trade regulations for endangered species. As the deputy director of wildlife and biodiversity for Cambodia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, this was part of his job.

But in what conservationists call an “ironic tragedy,” Kry was apprehended in New York for smuggling endangered wild monkeys into the United States.

He’s one of eight charged as part of an “international primate smuggling ring,” which includes the director general of Cambodia’s Forestry Administration, as well as the owner, general manager and four employees of primate supplier Vanny Resources and Bio Research, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The alleged smuggling ring is part of a global, billion-dollar wildlife trade industry, which in Cambodia has long been under suspicion of trafficking wild macaques through the legal trade of captive-bred monkeys.

Bribes for ministry officials reached tens of thousands of dollars over the years, indicated a U.S. court document, which also noted a hefty donation from Vanny Bio Research to Cambodia’s ruling political party at the request of the now-indicted director general. 

As the Cambodian government remains tight-lipped, conservationists wonder if the charges will spark change. Today, primatologists fear that ecosystems without macaques could have concerning effects on Southeast Asia’s forests.

Long-tailed macaques are considered the most traded primate in the world because of their use in laboratory research, which includes the development of the Covid-19 vaccine. In July, the macaque was uplisted from ‘vulnerable’ to ‘endangered’ on the Red List of Threatened Species, which listed ‘biological use’ as primary main threat.
In full: https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/camb ... nkey-trade

Cambodian Arrests Affect Share Prices:
Charles River Laboratories and Labcorp shares fall on potential NHP supply issues
Stock Markets Nov 30, 2022 01:30PM ET
By Sam Boughedda

Shares of Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (NYSE:LH) and Charles River Laboratories (NYSE:CRL) dipped Wednesday in relation to the ability of the companies to obtain Cambodia-sourced non-human primates.

The concerns relate to a November 16 announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice that a Cambodian NHP supplier and two Cambodian officials had been criminally charged in connection with illegally importing NHPs into the United States.

Charles River Laboratories commented on the topic in an SEC filing today, suggesting the supply of Cambodia-sourced NHPs will be difficult to obtain in the United States "for some time." They made the statement in light of the indictment and subsequent statements made by the Cambodian government.

However, CRL made clear that it was not named or referenced in the DOJ proceedings and does not have any direct supply contracts with the indicted Cambodian supplier.

If it is the case that NHPs will be difficult to obtain in the U.S. for some time, then Labcorp could also be impacted.

Labcorp shares are currently down 2.74%, while CRL has declined 7.5%.

CRL added that it is currently working to mitigate any Cambodia NHP supply impact with efforts to procure NHPs under different supply arrangements.
https://www.investing.com/news/stock-ma ... SI-2954767

And then the "Khmer Times" publishes a couple of articles saying monkey sales are all okay and on the upswing, too ...pukey fuckwits... What a gruesome business.

As Concerns Ease Over Supply of Monkeys from Cambodia for U.S.-based Research Companies Stock Prices Rally...
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501203720/ ... ces-rally/

Monkey Exports On -- Ministry Dismisses Reports of Suspension after U.S. Action
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501202635/ ... us-action/

. . .