Man smuggles 1,700 reptiles into US — with some stuffed in his pants

A California man has pleaded responsible to smuggling greater than 1,700 wild animals into the US — together with 60 snakes and different reptiles that have been discovered stashed in his pants.

Jose Manuel Perez, 30, from Oxnard, on Wednesday was convicted in federal court docket of two counts of smuggling items and one depend of wildlife trafficking, the US Justice Division introduced.

Perez faces as much as 45 years in jail when he's sentenced on Dec. 1.

Perez was arrested on Feb. 25 as he tried to cross the border on the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

Throughout a search, border brokers found 60 bearded lizards, child crocodiles and snakes hidden in Perez’s jacket and pants.

Perez allegedly informed a border patrol agent that the reptiles, which have been in small baggage, have been his pets. Three of them died.

Prosecutors estimated the full market worth of the wildlife at greater than $739,000.

Based on Perez’s plea settlement, from Jan. 2016 to Feb. 22, Perez and his accomplices, together with his 26-year-old sister, Stephany Perez, used social media to rearrange the smuggling of 1000's of reptiles.

Jose Manuel Perez has admitted to smuggling 1,700 reptiles into the US, together with 60 snakes and different reptiles that have been present in his jacket and pants.

AP

The snakes have been discovered inside small baggage when Perez was stopped on the US-Mexico border in February.

AP

The animals, together with Yucatan field turtles, Mexican field turtles, child crocodiles and Mexican beaded lizard, have been imported from Mexico and Hong Kong into the US with out being declared to customs officers, the DOJ stated.

As a part of the trafficking plot, Perez’s cohorts retrieved the reptiles from Ciudad Juarez Worldwide Airport in Mexico and smuggled them by automobile to El Paso, Texas, in trade for a charge, which relied on the variety of animals, the scale of the package deal and the danger of getting caught, prosecutors stated.

Perez then had the animals shipped to his household’s residence in Ventura County, the place he resold the animals, together with protected and endangered species, to prospects throughout the US.  

On some events, Perez himself traveled to Mexico to gather the wildlife. The DOJ stated the California man crossed the border 36 occasions between Feb. 2021 and Feb. 2022, when his luck ran out.

Prosecutors stated Perez and his accomplices smuggled the reptiles for resale within the US.

AP

Based on the Justice Division, lower than a month after his arrest, Perez was launched on bond.

In early June, a day earlier than a court docket listening to he had requested, Perez allegedly eliminated his GPS ankle monitor and fled to Tijuana. He was positioned lower than two weeks later and hauled again to California, the place he’s been in custody ever since.

Perez’s sister is scheduled to go on trial within the wildlife smuggling case in Feb. 2023.