Woman convicted in baby-selling case sentenced for running puppy mill

A 56-year-old woman sentenced to federal custody in 2012 for her role in what prosecutors called an international baby-selling ring was sentenced Tuesday to 10 months in custody for running an unlicensed puppy mill.

Carla Chambers violated the terms of her probation by running the puppy mill out of her Las Vegas home, prosecutors said.

U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Battaglia, who had sentenced Chambers in the 2012 case, called the puppy-mill violations “abhorrent” and told her that she has “led a life with utter disrespect for the law.”

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Battaglia also ordered Chambers to pay $24,000 in restitution to people who bought the puppies and to serve 26 months of supervised release. Many of the puppies died of respiratory and parasitic infections shortly after being purchased, prosecutors said.

Chambers was taken into custody by deputy U.S. marshals in San Diego.

In 2012, Chambers was convicted of being part of a conspiracy to create an “inventory of unborn babies” that could be sold for up to $180,000 each. She recruited young women who would travel to Ukraine to be implanted with embryos for $40,000, according to court documents.

Chambers and co-conspirators would then find prospective parents by telling them falsely that the pregnancies were from surrogacy arrangements in which the original couples had backed out.

In that case, Battaglia sentenced Chambers to five months in custody and seven months of home confinement. Chambers had pleaded guilty to receiving money from an illegal enterprise. Her role was to find surrogates, according to her plea bargain.

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