LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California man who smuggled greater than 1,700 wild animals into the USA, together with 60 reptiles hidden in his clothes, pleaded responsible Wednesday to federal expenses.
Jose Manuel Perez, 30, of Oxnard, entered pleas to 2 counts of smuggling and a cost of wildlife trafficking.
Prosecutors mentioned that from 2016 to this February, Perez and his accomplices used social media to rearrange to smuggle animals from Mexico and Hong Kong. Most had been reptiles and included Yucatan field turtles, Mexican field turtles, child crocodiles and Mexican beaded lizards, based on a press release from the U.S. Division of Justice.
It's unlawful to import the animals with out permits underneath a world treaty on the commerce of endangered species, the DOJ mentioned.
Perez paid accomplices a crossing price to drive animals from Mexico to El Paso, Texas, the place he had them shipped to his household’s Ventura County residence and resold them to prospects all through the U.S., authorities mentioned.
He additionally made some three dozen journeys to Mexico himself to choose up animals, and on Feb. 25 he was arrested whereas making an attempt to enter the U.S. with 60 reptiles hidden in luggage of his clothes, prosecutors mentioned. Three of the reptiles died.
The smuggled reptiles had been value about $739,000, authorities estimated.
Perez fled to Tijuana in June whereas out on bond however was shortly captured and returned to the U.S. He may withstand 20 years in federal jail for every smuggling depend when he’s sentenced on Dec. 1.
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