Oxnard Man Sentenced to Prison for Trafficking at Least 1,700 Animals into the United States from Mexico

A Ventura County man who smuggled at least 1,700 reptiles from Mexico to the United States over a six-year period was sentenced today to 65 months in federal prison.

Jose Manuel Perez, 34, of Oxnard, was sentenced by United States District Judge Fernando M. Olguin.

Perez pleaded guilty in August 2022 to two counts of smuggling goods into the United States and one count of wildlife trafficking.

From January 2016 and to February 2022, Perez and other co-conspirators smuggled wildlife into the United States from Mexico and elsewhere, including Hong Kong, without obtaining the permits required by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and without declaring any wildlife imported into the United States.

Perez and his co-conspirators used social media to buy and to negotiate the terms of the sale and delivery of wildlife in the United States. Perez advertised for sale on social media the animals smuggled from Mexico into the United States, posting photos and videos that depicted the animals being collected from the wild.

The animals – which included Yucatán box turtles, Mexican box turtles, baby crocodiles and Mexican beaded lizards – were imported into the United States from Mexico and Hong Kong without the permits required by CITES.

For the animals smuggled from Mexico, co-conspirators retrieved the wildlife from Cuidad Juárez International Airport in Mexico and eventually shipped the animals by car to El Paso, Texas. Perez paid his co-conspirators a “crossing fee” for each border crossing – the amount of which depended on the number of animals transported, the size of the package, and the risk of being detected by the authorities.

On other occasions, Perez and a co-conspirator traveled to Mexico to purchase additional live animals that had been taken from the wild so that the animals could be smuggled into the United States. Once the animals had been smuggled into the United States, they were transported to Perez’s then-residence in Missouri. But after he moved to California, the wildlife was transported to his residence in Ventura County.

In total, Perez caused the illegal smuggling and importation of at least 1,700

animals with a fair market value of more than $739,000.

Perez is serving a nine-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in May 2023 to three counts of being a felon in possession of firearms. He is not legally permitted to possess firearms because his criminal record includes felony convictions in Ventura County Superior Court for street terrorism and assault with a deadly weapon.

United States Fish and Wildlife Service investigated this matter. The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Homeland Security Investigations provided substantial assistance.

Assistant United States Attorneys Matthew W. O’Brien of the Environmental Crimes and Consumer Protection Section and Juan M. Rodriguez of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section, and Senior Trial Attorney Gary Donner of the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section, prosecuted this case.