Florida man’s monkey business gets him indicted for trafficking protected primates
A Florida man known as the “Monkey Whisperer” was indicted Wednesday on multiple charges and faces up to 26 years in federal prison.
Jimmy Wayne Hammonds, 57 of Parrish, was indicted with charges of conspiracy, trafficking, and submitting a false record in violation of the Lacey Act, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Middle District of Florida. The latter charge is a violation of a federal law that protects wildlife from illegal trade. Hammonds was also charged with violations of the Endangered Species Act and witness tampering.
Hammonds was the owner and operator of the Monkey Whisperer, LLC, which bred and sold wildlife. The monkey business problems began in 2017 when Hammonds tried to sell a capuchin monkey to a buyer in California, even though that buyer could not lawfully possess the animal.
Hammonds arranged transportation for the monkey through people who were not permitted to possess it. Law enforcement officers eventually seized the monkey from the California buyer.
On top of that indictment, Hammonds is facing charges due to illegally selling cotton-top tamarins, which are primates listed as an endangered species, to buyers in Alabama, South Carolina, and Wisconsin.
The Monkey Whisper kept his business hushed up by submitting false records to a law enforcement officer and attempted to persuade a witness to lie to a law enforcement officer.
