Oxnard man charged for allegedly smuggling more than 1,7000 reptiles into U.S.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – On Oxnard man was charged on Thursday for allegedly smuggling more than 1,700 reptiles – 60 of which were found hidden in his clothes last month – into the country from Mexico, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Jose Manuel Perez, 30, was originally charged with one count of conspiracy, nine counts of smuggling goods into the country, and two counts of wildlife trafficking on Feb. 24, but now faces an additional 14 overt acts of conspiracy from the new charges filed on Thursday, according to Ciaran McEvoy, spokesman for the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney's Office.
The indictment alleges that Perez brought Yucatan box turtles, Mexican box turtles, baby crocodiles, and Mexican bearded lizards, among other reptiles, across the Mexico/U.S. border.
Perez's sister, Stephany Perez, 25 of Oxnard, is also charged in the indictment with conspiracy, McEvoy said.
The additional allegations accuse Perez of crossing into the U.S. by car at the San Ysidro Port of Entry on Feb. 25 with around 60 reptiles concealed inside his jacket pockets, pants pockets, groin area, and pant legs, McEvoy said.
Perez initially denied having the reptiles to customs officials, but later told them that the animals were his pets, the indictment alleges.
The Perez siblings and their co-conspirators allegedly used social media to buy and negotiate the terms of the sale and deliver of wildlife in the country between January 2016 and February 2022, McEvoy said, adding that they would post photos and videos on social media that showed the animals being collected from the wild.
The animals were allegedly imported into the U.S. from Mexico and Hong Kong without obtaining permits by an international treaty known as the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Co-conspirators would retrieve the animals fro Cuidad Juarez International Airport in Mexico and ship them by car to El Paso, Texas, according to McEvoy. Perez allegedly paid his co-conspirators a "crossing fee" for each border crossing based on the number of animals transported, the size of the package, and the risk of being detected.
Once the animals arrived in the U.S., they were allegedly transported to Perez's then-residence in Missouri, and later to his house in Ventura County after he moved, McEvoy said.
Stephany Perez allegedly helped with the smuggling business, particularly when her bother was incarcerated in the U.S., he added.
Jose Perez has been in federal custody since his arrest on Feb. 25, and could face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison if convicted of all the conspiracy charges, a maximum sentence of 20 years for each smuggling count, and five years for each wildlife trafficking count, according to McEvoy.
He is expected to be arraigned in the U.S. District Court on March 28.
