Celebrity handbag designer jailed for smuggling crocodile, python leather

Nancy Gonzalez was arrested for running a multiyear conspiracy that involved recruiting couriers to transport her handbags on commercial flights to high-end showrooms.

A leading fashion designer whose accessories were used by celebrities from Britney Spears to the cast of the Sex and the City TV series was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty in Miami federal court on charges of smuggling crocodile handbags from her native Colombia.

Nancy Gonzalez was arrested in 2022 in Cali, Colombia, and later extradited to the U.S. for running a sprawling multiyear conspiracy that involved recruiting couriers to transport her handbags on commercial flights to high-end showrooms and New York fashion events — all in violation of U.S. wildlife laws.

“It’s all driven by the money,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Watts-Fitzgerald, who compared Gonzalez’s behaviour to that of drug traffickers. “If you want to deter the conduct, you want the cocaine kingpin, not the person in the field.”

Lawyers for Gonzalez sought leniency for the celebrity designer, describing her journey as a divorced single mother of two children who designed belts on a home sewing machine in Cali for friends into a fashion icon who outcompeted the likes of Dior, Prada and Gucci.

“She was determined to show her children and the world that women, including minority women like herself, can pursue their dreams successfully, and become financially independent,” they wrote in a memo prior to Monday’s hearing. “Against all odds, this tiny but mighty woman was able to create the very first luxury, high-end fashion company from a third world country.”

The lawyers said the 71-year-old designer has already paid dearly for her crimes. The Colombian company she built, which once employed 300 mostly female employees, declared bankruptcy and stopped operating after her arrest.

They also argued that only 1 per cent of the merchandise she imported into the U.S. lacked proper authorization and were samples for New York Fashion week and other events.

Gonzalez, addressing the court before sentencing, said she deeply regretted not meticulously complying with U.S. laws and that her only wish is to hug once more her 103-year-old mother.