Kriti Mehrotra
Helmed by conservationist, filmmaker, and wildlife enthusiast Eric Goode, HBO’s ‘Monsters of God’ is a documentary series exploring the complex trade of reptile dealing in the nation since the 1970s. It spans everything from the industry’s fall into smuggling to the lucrative nature of trafficking in endangered reptiles to the law-enforcement crackdowns that unraveled global connections. Amongst those to thus feature in this original is Michael “Mike” Van Nostrand, who followed in his loving father’s footsteps to care for their family, yet at a much different level than expected.
Mike Van Nostrand Has Been Thriving as an Entrepreneur Since the Late 1980s
Although Mike Van Nostrand was born in 1967 in New York to Elaine Van Nostrand and Raymond “Ray” Van Nostrand as the second of their three sons, he primarily grew up in South Florida. That’s because the family had relocated there in the 1970s to support the patriarch in expanding his beloved reptile business, only for things to change not long after due to his illegal actions. “He played around with reptiles he shouldn’t have been playing around with,” Mike said in the show, referring to his father’s smuggling of prohibited animals before also admitting to his drug involvement.
It was in December 1988 when Ray was convicted of animal trafficking, drug trafficking, and corruption, for which he served 8 months in prison while also losing the family home as well as money. Since Raymond “Ray” Van Nostrand Jr. was a commercial fisherman out in the Florida Keys at the time, it fell to Mike to care for their mother and their younger brother, Alexander “Alex” Van Nostrand. The 21-year-old was studying Accounting at Broward Community College in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with dreams of pursuing a career in the corporate world, but he quickly changed all his plans.
According to his loved ones, Mike has always been “abrasive” in his need to “control every situation,” but he is also focused, observant, smart, great with numbers, and he “has a good heart.” Therefore, he made the best of his father’s contacts in the months to follow and established his own enterprise with the resolve of doing things right – he didn’t want to “f*** around with illegal stuff.” He thus named his business Strictly Reptiles, which quickly took off thanks to his approach of operating it as a low-cost, high-volume dealership. In fact, within a few short years, they grew to the point where they were deemed the world’s largest reptile import-export company.
Mike Van Nostrand’s Gradually Got Involved With the Dark Side of the Industry
Since Mike’s plans to expand Strictly Reptiles were going even better than anyone expected, he soon brought his elder brother into the business to handle administrative details and deliveries. They ultimately became wholesalers, customizing a warehouse as their headquarters so they could divide it into different areas and designate each to particular reptiles for breeding and safety. As per the show, one room was for frogs, another only had tarantulas, there was a locked, venomous room for snakes, and various aluminum feed bins for tortoises, lizards, scorpions, iguanas, etc.
Mike’s efforts to run an honest enterprise weren’t in vain, as Strictly Reptiles reportedly became the go-to for every collector, dealer, hobbyist, and pet store by the time the mid-1990s came around. However, things had already started to change a little because his father had long been released from prison and welcomed into the family business without any real oversight of his dealings. According to the docuseries, that’s when the company became involved in the illegal smuggling of endangered, prohibited reptiles, and the profits were so high that Mike decided to continue with it.
Strictly Reptiles’ initial involvement in wildlife trafficking was low, but it quickly grew because of the business’ established scale and then kept growing through national as well as international deals. Therefore, the US Fish & Wildlife Service was well aware of what was happening by 1997, prompting it to conduct raids on Mike’s home, his business, and his partners across the country at once. His subsequent cooperation helped take down several other smugglers, so he was eventually sentenced to relatively lenient 8 months in prison and ordered to pay a $250,000 fine to a conservation.
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Mike Van Nostrand Remains Dedicated to His Business and Family
Although Mike went to prison in 1998 and his enterprise was placed on probation, it remained profitable because the executives had never neglected or ceased their legal dealings. In fact, as per the show, that’s the only side Ray Jr. focused on, so he was never even arrested or charged with any wrongdoing. As for Ray Sr., an already convicted felon in reptile trafficking, it has been alleged that Mike’s cooperation kept him off the hook. Therefore, after the founder’s release from prison, he returned to his beloved company and continued to take it to new heights on legal grounds, proving there was a reason he was given the moniker of the “Lizard King.”
It thus comes as no surprise that author Bryan Christy chronicled the story of Mike, his career, and his family in a book titled ‘The Lizard King’ in 2008, which was re-released in August 2026. In between this period, though, the Strictly Reptiles director found himself in trouble again for illegally acquiring and selling roughly 3,500 Florida three-striped mud turtles (Kinosternon baurii). He was arrested for it in 2021 and, on April 20, 2022, he was sentenced to 7 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, the first year of which will be under house arrest.
Moreover, the court ordered Mike to pay a $100,000 fine to the Lacey Act Reward Fund and imposed serious restrictions on his freedom to engage in wildlife trading during his probation. This was all in addition to Strictly Reptiles’ sentence of 5 years on probation, a $150,000 fine to be paid to the Lacey Act Reward, and auditing by a court-appointed professional. Since then, from what we can tell, Mike has completed his sentence and is now focused on bringing his business back to its former glory while also focusing on his family. The 59-year-old Davie, Florida, resident is also grieving the loss of his father, who passed away in 2023, but he remains a proud son, brother, husband, and father. He is happily married to his high school sweetheart, Michelle Van Nostrand, with whom he shares 2 kids.
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