A man who entered the San Ysidro border crossing into San Diego from Mexico was stopped by U.S. border agents, who discovered that he was attempting to smuggle a variety of reptiles into the country illegally. A total of 52 live reptiles were found in small bags “which were concealed in the man’s jacket, pants pockets and groin area”, the agency revealed in a statement.
The man in question has been identified as 30-year old Jose Manuel Perez a U.S. citizen who resides in Oxnard, California. Perez was initially stopped at the border crossing in his 2018 GMC truck on February 25, 2022 and then pulled out for additional inspection. When the reptiles were discovered during inspection, Perez allegedly told agents that the reptiles were his "pet lizards." The San Diego Union-Tribune has reported that the menagerie of live specimens included three dwarf boas, a Uribe’s false cat-eyed snake, a Pacific Coast parrot snake and four conehead lizards, according to herpetologists who identified them at the San Diego Zoo.
“Smugglers will try every possible way to try and get their product, or in this case live reptiles, across the border,” said Sidney Aki, Customs and Border Protection director of field operations in San Diego. “In this occasion, the smuggler attempted to deceive CBP officers in order to bring these animals into the US, without taking care for the health and safety of the animals.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection arrested Perez for the smuggling attempt and turned him over to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigators (HSI) and Fish and Wildlife Services (F&WS) for further processing.
Perez has been under investigation for months and the day prior to his arrest, he and his sister has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles for similar crimes.