CELEBRITY
Handbag Designer Gets 18 Months In Prison For Smuggling Python, Caiman Purses
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A Colombian fashion designer was sentenced in Miami on Monday to 18 months in prison for smuggling luxury crocodile and python handbags into the U.S. from Colombia.
Nancy Teresa Gonzalez de Barberi was arrested in Colombia in 2022 and extradited to the U.S. last year to face charges of one count of conspiracy and two counts of smuggling for illegally importing the luxury handbags between February 2016 and April 2019. She pleaded guilty to the charges in November 2023.
The handbags were made from caiman and python skin, and both animals are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), to which both the United States and Colombia are signatories. The animals used for the bags were bred in captivity, and although it is not illegal to use them, import authorizations from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are required under the terms of CITES.
Gonzalez, her company Gzuniga Ltd., and two co-defendants were charged with sidestepping the import rules by recruiting passengers to carry the handbags on commercial flights to the U.S., then transport them to fashion events and luxury showrooms.
The handbags were beloved by celebrities including the cast of Sex and the City, and fetched more than $2,000 each on average.
Prosecutors estimated Gonzalez smuggled more than $2 million worth of the handbags into the U.S.
Lawyers for Gonzalez, who is in her 70s, asked for leniency, arguing that only a small percentage of the handbags sold by her company lacked the proper paperwork.
“From the bottom of my heart, I apologize to the United States of America. I never intended to offend a country to which I owe immense gratitude,” Gonzalez told the court. “Under pressure, I made poor decisions.”
U.S. District Court Judge Robert Scola during sentencing described Gonzalez’s conduct as egregious given that she had been warned by U.S. officials to follow the rules on separate occasions in 2016 and 2017.
Still, the 18-month prison sentence he imposed is light compared to what she was facing: up to 5 years in prison for the conspiracy charge and up to 20 years in prison for each of the two smuggling charges.
TMX contributed to this article.
