Florida couple made over $200,000 in trafficking wildlife from Indonesia, feds say
Imagine a home with an interior design inspired by Jumanji. Sound crazy? Well not for one Port Richey couple.
According to an indictment from the Department of Justice, Novita Indah, 48, and Larry Malugin, 51, are charged with smuggling protected animals from Indonesia to the United States then reselling them from their Pasco County home.
The DOJ said the couple made roughly $211,212 from more than 4,000 online sales over a six-year span.
When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service raided their home in early 2017, investigators recovered a cobra, a python and mounts of various Southeast Asian primates.
“The increased use of the internet has opened a growing pathway for the illegal wildlife trade and wildlife traffickers go to great lengths to smuggle reptiles, birds, primates, and other species in and out of the U.S.,” said Edward Grace, Assistant Director of the USFWS, Office of Law Enforcement. “The Service would like to thank the U.S. Department of Justice for their assistance with this case.”
Investigators believe the couple first began selling rare species on eBay from Indonesia in 2011. Two years later, they moved to Florida where their operation continued until 2017.
The indictment was unsealed last week. If convicted, the couple could sit in federal prison for up to 25 years for smuggling and trafficking charges according to a news release.
