Johnny Depp Could Face Jail Time

Johnny Depp and wife Amber Heard are back from Australia, but they're still facing some issues related to their trip. You might remember that Depp got in trouble for allegedly smuggling his pet dogs onto the couple's flight — they took a private jet — Down Under earlier in May, when the actor was there filming the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Well, it turns out that Depp might be in even more trouble for reportedly breaching the rules than we originally thought. How much trouble, exactly? Johnny Depp could face 10 years of jail time or be fined a maximum of $340,000 if he did, in fact, smuggle the dogs, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Depp's dogs Pistol and Boo became the subjects of a high-profile quarantine case in Canberra after it was discovered that the pooches had not been declared before Depp and Heard took flight into the country. Australia's Agriculture Minister even threatened to have the dogs put down if Depp did not fly them back within hours after a warning. While the dogs are safe on U.S. soil, this did not stop a federal investigation being launched to see if Depp should be prosecuted for smuggling them in the first place, according to The Daily Mail. Bustle has reached out to Depp's rep for comment, but has not yet heard back.

This could potentially lead to a very messy situation for the actors, but it is a good lesson for the rest of us to familiarize ourselves with specific travel rules before going on an international flight. Some countries have different laws than ours when it comes to traveling — and different penalties if said laws are broken. Not only is important to respect them while we are abroad, it is also important to take the laws seriously.

After all, as the Agricultural Minister said, people who want to bring pets into Australia have to apply for a permit first and have to go through a quarantine process, which helps keep diseases out of the country. "The reason you can walk through a park in Brisbane and not have in the back of your mind 'what happens if a rabid dog comes out and bites me or bites my kid' is because we've kept that disease out," he said in a TV interview. The minister does have a point. After all, who is to say that a dog coming from an entirely different country is perfectly healthy, even if it is the furry child of a Hollywood superstar?

By the way, it looks like Depp's stardom did not do him any favors in terms of the biosecurity laws so far. The minister said, "If we start letting movie stars, even if they've been 'Sexiest Man Alive' twice, to come into our nation then why don't we just break the laws for everybody." He does have a point. Hopefully, Depp has at least taken this as a learning experience, if nothing else. But even if he hasn't, we all should.

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