On Sat, 06 Mar 2004 21:50:56 GMT, "GrlIntrpted"
wrote in Message-Id:
:

A repost of a link that was posted to Orchid Spring Discussion Board.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald...al/8118304.htm]



I found this information interesting:



Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2004 19:21:34 -1000
From: "Bill Bergstrom"
To: "Orchid"
Subject: [OGD] Arias
Message-ID:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Some of what you have been told about the arrest of Manuel Arias Silva
in Miami, some not quite true. George arrive at the show and so did
all the plants (quite legal) No Manuel..After extensive phoning
Manuel was found to be incarcerated. George went there and was denied
any info or visit (typical now days..same as Pepe) The idea was to
keep him there in jail indefinitely..No bail, no phone calls no
hearing (I guess) George and his wife (in the legal business) turned
that all around. They eventually set it up for Manuel (one of the
dearest people you would ever want to know..frail,,in terrible health)
to be released to Georges custody..In Texas...The prosecution
screamed..but bail was set..HOWEVER..he is still cooped up until
Monday..Weekend and all that..even though the procedure was finished
early Fri. (or so I am told) No charges were totally defined but
plenty discovered. NO Kovachii involved..merely Phrags in general and
the whole thing going back as long as ten years ago. I had previously
heard that it had to do with mislabeling a plant (according to F &W)
and maybe because plants of Phrag caudatum Sanderae were labeled
falsely as caudatum...If so..F&W is way off base..They are one and the
same and, in fact, no one is even calling the plant Sanderae at all
anymore..(I guess like the plants I used to sell as Peruviana and
Amazonica...names just dissolved away) Point being that much is to be
known if, in fact, there are 80 counts against him as I
heard..Further..rumor has it that plants were shipped with a
Maxillaria designation...The Miami local paper has a longer
account..very much filled with damning evidence...It looks bad for
both George and Manuel if true..Story has it that George is also to be
indicted when he goes home..hopefully with Manuel, who that had
evidently hoped to keep in jail to provide info against George..You
know...Get him to squeal..or never see the light of day or another
Peruvian sunset...What was the name of that book George Orwell put
out.??? Hell Cant remember..that time has passed..Or has it?
Lastly..from what I hear..A knight in armor has appeared and a lawyer
showed up at the show and offered to help Manuel..A lawyer who loves
and is quite familiar with Orchids...A definite plus for the
situation...We will be hearing about this for a long time to come I
fear...I can tell you this for certain. I have known Manuel for 25
years and a finer, more respectable man you will never meet..George
and I have had our differences through the years..but I have never
heard a breath of his attempting to sell illegal stuff (though the
news article says there is evidence that he did) You can take things
out of context when you read between the lines on that article...Were
they illegal (by someone's standard) Phrags he was discussing in his
messages (somehow obtained..hundreds of them) to Manuel..or simply
instructions on how to get every day Orchids easily and quickly
through the paper work..Only time will tell...My fears are that it is
not the actual situation we should be shuddering about..but the
process that has brought it about and what that means to our rights
and to our privacy. Bill
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