Two Baltimore, Maryland, men are facing charges for allegedly using exotic animals – including snakes, a lemur and a spider monkey – in photoshoots featuring three semi-clothed models and a ring of fire in a garage beneath a luxury shopping complex.

Photographer Vernon Crowfey III, the 32-year-old owner of the company Photogeniks, was arrested in Towson, Maryland, on 16 July after an undercover officer arranged a shoot with the animals.

A second man, Jayden Evans, 25, a collaborator who owns Tarzan Exoticz, which sells personalized photoshoots with exotic animals, was also arrested with Crowfey.

The pair allegedly staged a photoshoot in a parking garage beneath Towson Town Center where Crowfey photographed three women posing with the exotic animals. Video footage and photos circulating online show the garage floor lit on fire.

Charging documents state Crowfey and Evans obtained the animals from North Carolina without a permit. Evans’s website, Instagram and Facebook pages show photos of him and others with various animals, including “nonhuman primates”.

“Vernon Crowfey was observed in a multitude of joint posts with Jayden Evans where he is the photographer for the animal shoots, and Jayden Evans is the animal handler during the photoshoots,” the documents said.

The arrests came in a sting operation after a Baltimore police detective confirmed with the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service that neither of the men had a valid Class C exhibitor or dealer license as required under the Animal Welfare Act.

An undercover officer later arranged a photoshoot with Evans involving the lemur and spider monkey. A search warrant was executed at Evans’s home, where both men were arrested. Police also found snakes, lizards, rabbits, a tarantula and several other animals at the home.

“Based off of what the USDA specialist and Animal Control Officers observed at the scene, neither the lemur or spider monkey were in proper living conditions, which led to their overall neglect,” charging documents said.

Both men are each facing 23 misdemeanor and felony charges, including animal cruelty and arson-related offenses, for allegedly setting fire to the mall parking garage.

Crowfey claimed to CBS News Baltimore that he was given permission by mall security to use the parking garage as the backdrop for his photoshoot.

“We spoke with the security at the mall as well. We explained to him that we was gonna have the fire flame photoshoot. He told us basically just be out before the mall closed,” Crowfey told the network.

He also said he wanted to use the space because “we talkin’ about an empty parking lot, with no civilians, full of concrete and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a parking lot be set on fire with lighter fluid.”

The lemur and spider monkey were transported to the Maryland Zoo.

“Primates are not domesticated. They are wild animals. They have not been in captivity and bred long enough to get that wildlife feature out of them,” Jacob Thompson, owner of Global Pets, told WBAL. “All it takes is for these animals to hit a maturity point or something triggers them to react in a way that’s wild-like.”

The arrests come as a new documentary on the exotic wildlife trade, Monsters of God, is released by HBO on Thursday. Film-maker Eric Goode, whose previous hits include the pandemic streamer Tiger King, told Vanity Fair last week that pop culture drives demand for exotic and endangered species.

“Jurassic Park had this crazy paradoxical effect on pet sales in the US. Finding Nemo made everyone want to buy a clown fish,” Goode said. “When I used to travel in Asia 10 to 15 years ago, I would see owls in the marketplaces, and people would say: ‘Oh, those are Harry Potter birds.’”