A Colombian luxury fashion designer who made handbags for celebrities and shows including Sex and the City has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for smuggling purses made from protected reptile skins into the United States.
Nancy Gonzalez’s handbags were carried by celebrities such as Victoria Beckham, Britney Spears and Salma Hayek, and featured in the film The Devil Wears Prada. They were smuggled into the country by Gonzalez’s friends, relatives and employees on commercial flights, breaking US wildlife laws. The designer also broke an international treaty by illegally importing bags made from caimans — a reptile related to alligators.
Gonzalez, 71, was sentenced in a Miami federal court on Monday.
She was arrested in 2022 in Cali, Colombia, and later extradited to
