California Man Pleads Guilty to Wildlife Trafficking and Smuggling

Jose Manuel Perez of Oxnard, California, pleaded guilty to two counts of smuggling goods into the United States and one count of wildlife trafficking after illegally trafficking more than 1,700 protected animals, including Yucatan box turtles, Mexican box turtles, crocodiles, and Mexican beaded lizards, from Mexico and Hong Kong into the United States between 2016 and 2022. The wildlife smuggled by Perez had a total market value exceeding $739,000. Perez will be sentenced on December 1, 2022, and is facing a maximum sentence of forty-five years in federal prison. His co-defendant is scheduled to stand trial in February 2023.