United States v. Gzuniga Ltd., et al.

United States v. Gzuniga Ltd., et al., No. 1:22-CR-20170 (S.D. Fla.), ECS Senior Trial Attorney RJ Powers, AUSA Tom Watts-FitzGerald, and ECS Paralegal Jillian Grubb.

On April 22, 2024, a court sentenced Luxury handbag company Gzuniga Ltd., its founder Nancy Teresa Gonzalez de Barberi, and Gonzalez’s two associates Mauricio Giraldo and John Camilo Aguilar Jaramillo for illegally importing merchandise from Colombia into the United States that was manufactured from protected wildlife. Gzuniga was ordered to forfeit approximately 30 handbags and complete a three-year term of probation, to include implementing a compliance plan. The company is also banned from any activities involving commercial trade in wildlife while under supervision. Gonzalez will serve 18 months’ incarceration, followed by three years’ supervised release. Giraldo and Jaramillo were sentenced to time served and a year of supervised release. U.S. authorities extradited Gonzalez, Giraldo and Jaramillo from Columbia to face the conspiracy and smuggling charges (18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 545).

Between February 2016 and April 2019, the defendants illegally imported designer handbags made from caiman and python skin, both protected species. They solicited friends, relatives, and employees of Gonzalez’s manufacturing company in Colombia, called C.I. Diseño Y Moda, to act as couriers and transport the designer handbags in their luggage or clothing while traveling on passenger airlines. Once the designer handbags were smuggled into the United States, they were transported or shipped to the Gzuniga showroom in Manhattan, New York, where employees placed them on display for high-end retailers to view and purchase as stock for their stores. The average retail price for these “Nancy Gonzalez” brand handbags exceeded $2,000.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement conducted the investigation.