Smuggler Caught With 60 Reptiles in Pants in $750,000 Scheme Pleads Guilty - Report

CC BY 2.0 / Flickr / Paul Balfe / Python in Australia Zoo, Beerwah, Sunshine Coast
Python in Australia Zoo, Beerwah, Sunshine Coast - Sputnik International, 1920, 25.08.2022
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In March 2022, a man from Southern California was caught transporting 60 reptiles and lizards in his trousers as part of a massive scheme to smuggle 1,700 animals into the country via Mexico and Hong Kong.
Jose Manuel Perez, the mastermind behind a $750,000 reptile smuggling scheme, is now facing decades in prison, officials told AFP news agency on Thursday.

In a plea deal with the US Department of Justice, Perez confessed that he had paid “mules” (drug couriers) to transport some of his illicit cargo, making border crossings himself on other occasions.

In one such incident, Perez tried to drive from Mexico with 60 creatures secreted placed around his groin and in different elements of his clothes in March this year.
When the customs officer questioned him, Perez said that he was transporting his pet lizards in his pockets. Police were shocked to discover 60 reptiles on him, including arboreal alligator lizards, Isthmian dwarf boas, Yucatan box turtles, Mexican box turtles, baby crocodiles and Mexican beaded lizards, which he planned to sell to his clients across the country for over $739,000, according to media reports.
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