A California man has pleaded guilty to smuggling more than 1,700 wild animals into the US — including 60 snakes and other reptiles that were found stashed in his pants.
Jose Manuel Perez, 30, from Oxnard, on Wednesday was convicted in federal court of two counts of smuggling goods and one count of wildlife trafficking, the US Justice Department announced.
Perez faces up to 45 years in prison when he is sentenced on Dec. 1.
Perez was arrested on Feb. 25 as he tried to cross the border at the San Ysidro Port of Entry.
During a search, border agents discovered 60 bearded lizards, baby crocodiles and snakes hidden in Perez’s jacket and pants.
Perez allegedly told a border patrol agent that the reptiles, which were in small bags, were his pets. Three of them died.
Prosecutors estimated the total market value of the wildlife at more than $739,000.
According to Perez’s plea agreement, from Jan. 2016 to Feb. 22, Perez and his accomplices, including his 26-year-old sister, Stephany Perez, used social media to arrange the smuggling of thousands of reptiles.
Jose Manuel Perez has admitted to smuggling 1,700 reptiles into the US, including 60 snakes and other reptiles that were found in his jacket and pants. AP
The snakes were found inside small bags when Perez was stopped at the US-Mexico border in February. APThe animals, including Yucatan box turtles, Mexican box turtles, baby crocodiles and Mexican beaded lizard, were imported from Mexico and Hong Kong into the US without being declared to customs officials, the DOJ said.
As part of the trafficking plot, Perez’s cohorts retrieved the reptiles from Ciudad Juarez International Airport in Mexico and smuggled them by car to El Paso, Texas, in exchange for a fee, which depended on the number of animals, the size of the package and the risk of getting caught, prosecutors said.
Perez then had the animals shipped to his family’s home in Ventura County, where he resold the animals, including protected and endangered species, to customers across the US.
On some occasions, Perez himself traveled to Mexico to collect the wildlife. The DOJ said the California man crossed the border 36 times between Feb. 2021 and Feb. 2022, when his luck ran out.
Prosecutors said Perez and his accomplices smuggled the reptiles for resale in the US. APAccording to the Justice Department, less than a month after his arrest, Perez was released on bond.
In early June, a day before a court hearing he had requested, Perez allegedly removed his GPS ankle monitor and fled to Tijuana. He was located less than two weeks later and hauled back to California, where he’s been in custody ever since.
Perez’s sister is scheduled to go on trial in the wildlife smuggling case in Feb. 2023.
