def to_timestamp(dt_str, tz_str):

    tz = re.match('^UTC((?:\+|\-)(0?\d)):00',tz_str)

    dt = datetime.strptime(dt_str, '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')

    ts = dt.replace(tzinfo = timezone(timedelta(hours=int(tz.group(1)))))

    return ts.timestamp()