Oleg Zabluda's blog
Thursday, September 14, 2017
 
Busting Cactus Smugglers in the American West
Busting Cactus Smugglers in the American West
How undercover agents infiltrated the global black market for cacti
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Yevgeny Safronov and the four tourists landed in Los Angeles on a 70-degree dream of a day last May. They were Czechs, Slovaks, and Russians, [...] who would soon drive into the desert, where undercover agents would be waiting. The flight from Moscow had lasted 12 hours. [...] The investigation began when an agent in Denver found a European website advertising a trip. Written in Slovak, [...] The post was written by the trip’s organizer and the site’s host, Igor Drab,
[...]
There are 1,480 living species of cacti, all but one indigenous to the Americas.
[...]
Safronov is in his early 60s. He has collected cacti half his life. Back in Russia, he keeps 2,000 plants in his own greenhouse, although he estimates he’s tended to more than 10,000 in his time. Almost every year he’d hunt cacti in places like Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and the American Southwest. In his last U.S. tour, in 2011, he camped with Drab and others in Death Valley, crossed the Hoover Dam, marveled at Las Vegas, or as he called it, the “megalopolis of entertainment,” all the while keeping detailed accounts of cacti sightings. In a blog he later detailed the temperatures of the desert days, the locations of cacti, even what he ate some nights (“BBQ pork ribs, vegetables, and whisky”).
[...]
the cactus’s seed pod had been stolen.
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prickly pear cactus [...] If you cut one and plant it, it’ll sprout more pads. On the plant, one had been cut away.
[...]
Safronov checked two bags at Los Angeles International Airport. [...] Fish and Wildlife agents opened his luggage. [...] Inside the bag agents found seeds [...], whole cacti [...] nearly 70 plants or parts of plants. [...] Safronov admitted to attempting to smuggle an object contrary to law, a misdemeanor, as well as to a civil import/export penalty. The judge ordered him to pay $525.
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https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/02/cactus-thieves/470070/
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/02/cactus-thieves/470070/

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