Cambodian wildlife official among eight charged in US with smuggling endangered monkeys

Prosecutor says official from Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries was arrested en route to a conference on protecting endangered species

Eight people in the US have been charged with smuggling endangered monkeys, including a Cambodian wildlife official arrested while travelling to a conference on protecting endangered species.

The group - consisting of the Cambodian official, a colleague in that country's wildlife agency and six people connected to a Hong Kong-based company - were involved in breeding long-tailed macaques for scientific and academic research, supplying them to labs in Florida and Texas.