California man sentenced to 65 months in prison for trafficking animals into the U.S.

A California man has been sentenced to 65 months in prison for smuggling animals into the United States from Mexico, Hong Kong and other countries for six years, the Justice Department announced Friday.Jose Manuel Perez of Oxnard, California, and several unnamed co-conspirators were sentenced Thursday for illegally smuggling and importing at least 1,700 animals with a fair market value of over $739,000.
Perez pleaded guilty to two charges – one for wildlife trafficking and another of smuggling goods into the U.S. – when he was tried in August 2022, as the trafficking occurred from January 2016 to February 2022.
Prior to the sentencing, Perez was serving a nine-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in May 2023 to three counts of being a felon in possession of firearms.
Without permits required under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, Perez and his accomplices managed the sale and delivery of smuggled wildlife transported from Mexico into the U.S. using social media, posting photos and videos of the animals being collected from the wild to advertise them, according to the DOJ.
Perez’s co-conspirators obtained the animals from Mexico – including baby crocodiles, beaded lizards and box turtles – from Ciudad Juárez International Airport, then transported the wildlife by car to El Paso, Texas. Perez paid his accomplices a crossing fee each time they crossed the border, the amount determined by the risk of detection by law enforcement, the total number of transported animals and the size of each package.
On other occasions, Perez traveled to Mexico himself with an accomplice to buy live animals taken from the wild so they could be smuggled into the U.S. Once the animals were shipped, Perez arranged for their delivery to his residence, which was originally in Missouri, then in California after he moved.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigated the case with help from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, the Environmental Crimes Section of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations.

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