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 News from Around the Americas | September 2007 
Boot Retailer Allegedly Smuggled Turtle Skins
 Daniel Borunda - El Paso Times
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 |  | They would smuggle (skins) into Mexico to be made into boots and it would be sold in the black market.
- Thomas Karabanoff |  | |
An El Paso boot retailer was among five people arrested this month as part of a three-year undercover sting targeting the smuggling of sea turtle skins, U.S. Fish & Wildlife agents said.
The investigation, assisted by the Mexican attorney general's office, extended from Mexico across the El Paso-Juárez border to Colorado in what federal authorities described as an international sales network of products made from endangered wildlife.
"They would smuggle (skins) into Mexico to be made into boots and it would be sold in the black market," said Thomas Karabanoff, the resident agent in charge for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service law enforcement office in West Texas and New Mexico.
More than 700 tanned skins of sea turtle, caiman, python and other animals made into boots, belts and wallets were allegedly smuggled in 25 shipments since 2005, U.S. Department of Justice officials said.
On Sept. 6, agents in El Paso arrested Jorge R. Caraveo, owner of the Juárez Boot Co. in Downtown El Paso, on multiple counts of smuggling, officials said.
According to a federal indictment, Caraveo, 34, is accused of receiving shipments of sea turtle skins in Juárez that would then be crossed into El Paso before being shipped to Colorado.
Others were arrested on smuggling or money laundering charges. Agents arrested Oscar Cueva in McAllen. In Denver, Fish & Wildlife Service agents arrested Carlos Leal Barragan of Guzman, Jalisco, Mexico; and Esteban Lopez Estrada and Martin Villegas Terrones, both of Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico.
The indictment stated that Leal Barragan ran a clandestine tannery in Mexico that shipped turtle skins to Juárez for pickup by Caraveo.
Lopez Estrada ran a business named Botas Exoticas Canada Grande in Leon, Guanajuato. He claimed to have an inventory of 500 sea turtle skin boots that he could sell to an unnamed U.S. customer. Lopez Estrada listed the sea turtle items on his price list as imitation and told the customer they were real but listed as such to avoid arrest, the indictment alleged.
Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com
Turtle facts
• Sea turtles are among the world's most endangered wildlife because of human exploitation and degradation of habitat.
• Six of the world's seven species can be found in U.S. and Mexican waters.
• Sea turtles may live as long as 50 to 80 years. They may take 10 to 40 years to reach sexual maturity, depending on the species.
• The commercial importation of sea turtle shells, meat, eggs, skins and other products is banned in the United States.
• Mexico also has laws protecting sea turtles from harvest and commercial use.
• Sea turtles are used in the exotic skin trade where they are used for boots, belts and other goods.
• They are also killed for meat. Conservationists estimate 35,000 sea turtles are consumed each year in California and Baja California.
Source: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. "Sea Turtles. Global Species at Risk." |
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