Nancy Gonzalez, designer featured on Sex and the City smiles at cameras as she’s extradited to US from Columbia in handcuffs after being charged with smuggling endangered crocodile skin purses worth up to $10,000
A Colombian-born fashion designer, whose animal skin purses have been used by celebrities and characters from ‘Sex and the City’ and ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, has been extradited to the US on charges of conspiracy and smuggling linked to the use of extinction endangered substances. varieties in its luxury handbag lines.
Nancy Gonzalez, 78, owner of Gzuniga Ltd, was fingerprinted and signed extradition papers before being escorted by Interpol agents to a private jet from Bogotá, Colombia, to Florida on Wednesday.
She smiled at photographers who gathered to take her picture.
Gonzalez along with two other men, Diego Mauricio Rodriguez and Jhon Camilo Jaramillom, were charged by Florida authorities in April 2022 in coordination with an investigation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
She was accused of paying a network of couriers to transport hundreds of endangered python and caiman skin purses between the two countries.
If convicted on all charges, Gonzalez faces up to 25 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.
Colombian fashion designer Nancy Gonzalez, 78, is seen grinning at the camera as she is extradited at Bogota’s El Dorado International Airport back to the United States
Gonzales was fingerprinted by Interpol on Wednesday. She is said to have smuggled bags made of protected animal skin
Nancy Gonzalez, 78, owner of Gzuniga Ltd, was fingerprinted and signed extradition papers before being escorted by Interpol agents to a private jet from Bogotá, Colombia, to Florida on Wednesday.
Nancy Gonzalez here in handcuffs in July 2022, after being arrested by authorities in Cali, Colombia for smuggling endangered crocodile and snakeskin bags into the US
Gonzalez paid dozens of couriers to transport hundreds of animal hide handbags between Colombia and the US, where they sold for up to $10,000 each
Gonzalez’s satchels are said to retail for up to $10,000 apiece and have been sold at upscale department stores including Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman.
She and her alleged co-conspirators face up to 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine after allegedly using mules to smuggle more than 200 python and caiman skin wallets and handbags into the US without a license.
Most caiman species are endangered, but some skins can be sold as long as the seller has obtained certification under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES.
Gonzalez never received this permission, however, and as of February 2016, she and her colleagues allegedly paid runners to take multiple crocodile and snakeskin bags on flights to Miami and New York’s JFK airports over the next four years.
Gonzalez’s satchels were said to retail for up to $10,000 each and have been sold at luxury department stores including Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman
Gonzalez’s Animal Skin Bags Featured on the Hit TV Show ‘Sex and the City’
Gonzalez started out making belts and moved on to handbags in the late 1990s after a trip to New York when she was encouraged to build a collection by a director of a designer store.
Gonzalez’s satchels were said to retail for up to $10,000 each and have been sold at luxury department stores including Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman
Nancy Gonzalez, with her son Santiago, at a party for Bergdorf Goodman, where her animal skin handbags sell for thousands of dollars each
The couriers would take the clutches to the Gzuniga showroom in Midtown Manhattan, where they would be sold or displayed during September’s Fashion Week or June’s Resort Week, according to a federal suit filed in Miami federal court.
The fashion mules were told the bags were gifts for friends and family when questioned by authorities.
Some were sold by Gonzalez for over $10,000 per bag.
In 2019, as many as 12 people carrying four handbags each boarded a flight to the US on round-trip tickets paid for by Gonzalez, Fish and Wildlife Service researchers revealed.
The researchers asked that their identities be kept anonymous so as not to jeopardize their investigation.
When she was arrested in July 2022 following a joint investigation by Colombian police and European authorities, it was found that Gonzalez had illegally obtained endangered animal skins such as snakes and deer with the intention of making bags.
Gonzalez has been in custody since her arrest.
Gonzalez has now been extradited to the US on charges of violating an international agreement on the import of endangered animal products.
Gonzalez started making belts and switched to handbags in the late 1990s after a trip to New York. She was encouraged by a director of a designer store to build a collection
Gonzalez started out making belts and moved on to handbags in the late 1990s after a trip to New York when she was encouraged to build a collection by a director of a designer store.
Salma Hayek, Britney Spears and Victoria Beckham reportedly bought her carefully crafted handbags, although it is not clear if these were among the bags allegedly brought in illegally.
Her work was also included in an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2008.
In a 2019 interview, Gonzalez told the Miami Herald that she felt “a huge responsibility and commitment” to improving her products every time she saw a photo or video of a celebrity using one of her handbags.