Grower gets prison for smuggling orchids to Spring

Associated Press ^

[Orange1998]

Grower gets prison for smuggling orchids to Spring Associated Press

MIAMI - A prominent Peruvian orchid grower was sentenced today to almost two years in federal prison for scheming to smuggle prized tropical lady slipper orchids into the United States.

Manuel Arias Silva will spend one year and nine months in prison for shipping internationally protected wild orchids intermingled with nursery-raised flowers to a Texas dealer several times to feed the desires of high-end hobbyists from 1999 to last year.

U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz sentenced Arias to the low end of the federal guidelines on his guilty plea to two counts. He admitted shipping 2,050 orchids, including the endangered Phragmipedium species, worth $45,500 from Peru through Miami to suburban Houston.

"Judge Seitz did the best and the fairest she could under the circumstances," said defense attorney Peter Raben.

The dealer, George W. Norris of Spring, Texas, also has pleaded guilty and faces sentencing Sept. 2. The investigation was based on a tip about Norris offering endangered species for sale on the Internet.

Norris instructed Arias to ship through South Florida because U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors at Miami International Airport were more lax than their counterparts in Houston, according to papers and e-mails seized in the investigation.

Arias, 70, was one of three Peruvian growers with permission to cultivate endangered and newly discovered orchids from recently deforested areas. He apologized in a letter to the judge asking for mercy and noting his "sincere" conservation efforts.

The Peruvian lady slippers, known as "phrags" in collecting circles, are considered seriously endangered in the wild and are protected by international treaty. Nursery-raised varieties can be exported with government permits.

[Orange1998]

2 years was the low end of sentence guidelines. U.S. is taking this seriously.

[Jaded]

Isn't this just a flower?

[Orange1998]

Must not be ordinary. I wonder how they determine if it was grown in-house or in the wild.

[Strategerist]

Isn't this just a flower?

You must not know any Orchid fanatics, then...

People will spend thousands of dollars for rare varieties; many species are rare/endangered or require people to penetrate hundreds of miles into jungles filled with hostile tribes and then rappel up a cliff to get them.

The export of a lot of them is now illegal.

[freekitty]

If it turns up in someone's collection and it's not suppose to be there.

[Centurion2000]

I guess the thought of raising them from seeds is too difficult to contemplate ?

Seriously, import the dirt, the seeds ... build a small greenhouse for them and boom ... there are orchids.

[expat_panama]

many species are rare/endangered or require people to penetrate hundreds of miles into jungles filled with hostile tribes and then rappel up a cliff to get them.

 

Dang, and here I got these things growing wild in my front yard wild.  Once a week I got to chop 'em down so I can get to my car.

[monday]

"Arias, 70, was one of three Peruvian growers with permission to cultivate endangered and newly discovered orchids from recently deforested areas."

Seems to me that if more than three growers were allowed to cultivate them, they wouldn't be endangered? Is it mandatory to be stupid to go into government?

[gcruse]

Is it mandatory to be stupid to go into government?

Good question.  When I think back to the Congressional class of 1994 that rode into office on the Contract with America, I remember a bunch of smart, concerned people. The only congressman today with any integrity remains Ron Paul. 

I think what happens is access to government power and the 'need' to be reelected makes people susceptible to special interests, which ends up in stupid laws.