Miami, Florida – A Colombian handbag designer has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for smuggling handbags made from protected species into New York. Nancy Teresa Gonzalez de Barberi, founder of luxury handbag company Gzuniga Ltd., was indicted on charges of conspiracy and smuggling after illegally importing handbags made from caiman and python skin between February 2016 and April 2019.
Gonzalez, along with her company, pleaded guilty to the federal charges in November 2023. The Department of Justice revealed that Gonzalez used caiman and python skin, both protected under international agreements, to make the handbags. The trade of these species is regulated under the Endangered Species Act and requires permits for importation into the U.S.
Prosecutors accused Gonzalez, along with co-conspirators Mauricio Giraldo and John Camilo Aguilar Jaramillo, of smuggling designer purses, handbags, and totes into the U.S. by enlisting friends, relatives, and employees to wear or carry the bags on passenger airlines. Once in the U.S., the bags were delivered or shipped to the Gzuniga showroom in New York for display and sale.
All three individuals involved were Colombian citizens who were extradited to the U.S. for the same charges. Gonzalez received a sentence of prison time with credit for time served, three years of supervised release, and a special assessment. Her company was ordered to forfeit all handbags, banned from wildlife trade activities for three years, and sentenced to three years of probation.
Giraldo was sentenced to time served, a year of supervised release, and a special assessment. Aguilar Jaramillo is scheduled to be sentenced on June 27. The investigation into the smuggling scheme was conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement in Valley Stream, New York, with assistance from the Miami Resident Agent in Charge Office of USFWS. The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Florida and the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section.