Colombian designer jailed for 18 months over reptile handbags April 23, 2024

(Photo: Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Colombian designer jailed for 18 months over reptile handbags

A famous fashion designer was sentenced on Monday to 18 months in prison for smuggling handbags made from the skin of protected reptiles into the United States.

Colombian Nancy Gonzalez, 71, admitted in November to illegally importing handbags made from alligator and python skin between February 2016 and April 2019.

Both animals are protected by a multinational treaty called the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

The bags, clutches, and wallets of Gonzalez, a decorated designer, usually sell for thousands of dollars each and have appeared on catwalks and TV shows.

Among her famous clients are Salma Hayek, Britney Spears, and Victoria Beckham.

"Under pressure, I made the wrong decisions," a tearful Gonzalez told a Miami court on Monday, as her defense attorney sought leniency for the divorced mother of two.

She received an 18-month prison sentence, which will be reduced because she spent 14 months in prison after her arrest in Colombia in July 2022. She was extradited to the United States last August.

Gonzalez asked friends, family, and employees of her manufacturing company in Colombia to transport the reptile skin bags on commercial flights to the United States.

They were then delivered to the showrooms of Gonzalez's company, Gzuniga, in New York, where high-end retailers could buy them for resale in their stores.

The trafficking involved hundreds of handbags and wallets with an average retail price of more than $2,000 each, according to US prosecutors.

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