Nancy Gonzalez, 71, acknowledged hiring couriers to transport up to four items apiece on commercial flights from her home country of Colombia to the United States for high-profile events such as New York Fashion Week.
Gonzalez was given an 18-month term in a federal court in Miami on Monday for violating US wildlife regulations. Gonzalez was first detained in 2022 in Cali and then deported to the US.
Prosecutors said the handbags, which were manufactured from the hides of captive-bred caiman and pythons, were valued up to $2 million (£1.6 million), but the designer’s attorneys countered that each skin was just about it.
The court heard that on occasion, she neglected to get the appropriate import permits from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which is mandated under an internationally recognized treaty that controls the trade in endangered and threatened species.
