Colombian accessories designer Nancy Gonzalez pleaded guilty Friday to federal charges of smuggling python and caiman skins into the U.S. for use in luxury handbags.
According to WWD, 70-year-old Gonzalez pleaded guilty in Florida’s U.S. District Court alongside defendants, Diego Mauricio Rodriguez Giraldo, in connection with the trafficking scheme. The plea comes after Gonzalez and her Colombia-based company Gzuniga Ltd. were indicted by the U.S. Justice Department for illegal importation and conspiracy.
Gonzalez reportedly admitted to repeatedly smuggling exotic skins that she used in her luxury designs from 2016 to 2019. U.S. and Colombian authorities collaborated together to help stop the operation. She spent months behind bars in Colombia before being extradited to the U.S.
“The actions taken by the government resulted in Ms. Gonzalez being unnecessarily incarcerated in Colombia with drug dealers and terrorists for more than one year while awaiting extradition to the United States, being put out of business and her hundreds of employees becoming unemployed,” Gonzalez’s lawyer, Sam Rabin, told the Miami Herald.
Rabin added that Gonzalez decided to plead guilty directly to U.S. District Judge Robert Scola instead of dealing with negotiations with prosecutors, in hopes of a lighter sentence.
“She did this because she has faith in our courts but not in the Department of Justice and its prosecutors who have treated her most unfairly. They took the equivalent of an elephant gun to a mosquito when a fly swatter would have sufficed.”
Gonzalez plans to argue during her sentencing hearing that the skins were legally sourced. She also plans to argue that the merchandise shipped to high-end New York stores came from “farm-raised reptiles” and not protected wildlife.
Gonzalez admitted to transporting prohibited animal parts but asserted that the reptiles were ethically raised.
Gonzalez is scheduled for sentencing on February 5. She potentially faces up to five years for conspiracy and 20 years per smuggling charge, along with fines of up to $250,000 per count.
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[Feature Photo: Pixabay]
