Celebrity fashion designer accused of smuggling crocodile handbags

A Colombian-born fashion designer whose animal skin purses have adorned celebrities and characters in Sex and the City was recently arrested on charges she smuggled hundreds of crocodile handbags into the U.S.

Nancy Gonzalez and two of employees of her company, Gzuniga Ltd, were arrested in Cali, Colombia, on July 8 in a joint operation by Colombian authorities and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, reports Vice, citing the U.S. indictment.

The fashion accessory designer is facing extradition to the U.S. and charges in the U.S. Southern District Court of Florida that could lead to up to 25 years in prison and a $500,000 fine, reported AP.

As an endanger species, the sale of caiman skins is legal but requires a certificate that is expensive and difficult to obtain.

Bags made of crocodile skin can fetch up to $10,000 each in designer stores in the U.S. and Europe.

Beginning in February 2016, Gonzalez and the two employees began conspiring to “clandestinely import into the United States from Colombia products produced from protected species of wildlife, in violation of federal law, thereby enriching themselves upon the sale of the contraband products in the United States,” according to authorities cited by Vice.

In 2019, investigators with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told AP that as many as 12 people carried four handbags on a round-trip flight purchased by Gonzalez.

The indictment lists 24 separate flights where her network of mules snuck bags to the U.S. with plane tickets purchased by Gzuniga LTD or the three conspirators.

Gonzalez started with smaller accessories like belts but transitioned to handbags in the late 1990s after she was noticed by a design store executive who encouraged her to build up a collection. Owners of her handbags include Salma Hayek, Britney Spears and Victoria Beckham, and her work was featured in a 2008 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, according to AP.