The capture of Nancy González, the Colombian businesswoman who sold handbags made from animal skins in danger of extinction, is a matter that has a tail as long as that of the alligators with which she made the bags she sent to the United States.
It all started in February 2016 when Diego Mauricio Rodríguez Giraldo, one of those captured with Nancy González de Barberi on July 8, arrived in the United States “with handbags made of alligator skin”, without having signed the CITES permit ( for its acronym in English), which regulates international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora.
“The international requirement indicates that these people made wallets, bags and various products with the skins of babillas, alligators, snakes, among other wild species,” the Prosecutor’s Office recorded in the capture log known by this newspaper.
Without raising suspicion, four days after the first shipment and with a prior call from Rodríguez to Colombia, they were taken from Cali to New York, other bags that arrived in US stores, and from there into the hands of celebrities such as Britney Spears. , who flaunted “exotic handbags” made from snakes and caimans from Colombia.
They all arrived with the same modality: people who carried the bags claiming that they were “gifts” for acquaintances in that country. “In the investigation we were able to establish that each traveler apparently received air tickets and $600 for living in the US,” an investigator told EL COLOMBIANO.
These first shipments were experimental and with them they began to “test” and perfect the shipment strategy with the “mules” of the portfolios, in which Nancy González de Barberi herself gave instructions to those who carried the leather goods about what they should say in case of falling into the hands of the US authorities.
The following six months (between February and August), the portfolios continued to trickle in. They were sent under the same “modus operandi”, until on September 5, 2016, as stated in the document with which González de Barberi was requested in extradition, “32 alligator skin bags entered that arrived from Colombia with several passengers through from different airports in the USA.”
That was the first warning bell for the authorities of that country who began to track the arrival of the bags in prohibited skins, as a hunter tracks a snake or an alligator.
The day after the big shipment, Nancy González herself traveled to the United States with four alligator skin bags in her suitcases. When required by the authorities, she indicated that it was a gift for some friends.
no more dropper
From the first shipment of the 32 bags, Gutiérrez de Barberi and his collaborators decided that they would change the modality: no more dropper shipments and more quantity.
The next shipment was medium. According to the US authorities, on October 9, 2016 and under the same method of distributing the bags on different flights and with different people, 18 alligator skin bags managed to enter the US. From then on, shipments did not decrease in number and, between October 2016 and April 2019, when the United States authorities registered the last entry of handbags and handbags, Nancy González and company illegally entered 189 handbags and handbags. of protected or endangered animals.
With the evidence collected on the bags entering the United States and the tracking of the trips, a court in South Florida requested the extradition of Nancy González de B arberi, Diego Mauricio Rodríguez and Jhon Camilo Aguilar Jaramillo so that they respond for conspiracy to import and bring wildlife into the United States against the law; defraud the United States by impeding, impairing, obstructing, and nullifying legitimate government functions; and smuggling merchandise into the United States.
However, on Monday afternoon, the defense of the three captured stated that they filed a request for immediate release with the Attorney General’s Office, alleging that there was an alleged failure in the arrest legalization hearing, because, argues the defense, the raids apparently had the sole purpose of “capturing” those they represented.