With kovachii, I am still a bit confused as to the order it all happened. I
don't think he was intentionally smuggling in the manner your hypothetical
example suggests it is done.

I have always assumed he had the correct specialized permits to
import/export already classified Phrags and that he broke the law kind of by
accident because it was an undescribed piece of plant material and shouldn't
have left Peru, no matter what kind of permit he had. I have always kind of
believed that the issue started when Peru discovered one of their native
plants had made it into the US to be described by a US authority and that
until then, nobody realized the treaty had this kind of gray area in it that
would allow undescribed material to be exported so easily. It has always
seemed to me that he was in a kind of gray area and not at all doing what
you describe below as smuggling. But my assumptions are probably too
simplified.

He and Selby broke the law, (as decided by the outcome of the court case)
but what should they have done differently? What would have been the
correct course of action for an American plant collector in Peru to take
after discovering a new species of Phrag? What should Selby have done when
this unimaginably serendipitous piece of plant material dropped in their
lap?

K Barrett" wrote in message
. ..
jamiemtl wrote:
ok - so im now fascinated with Silva's and Norris' case. Apparently
they would get fake permits for legal orchids, then ship illegal ones
with these legit permits? It said on the US department of agriculture's
website that they even devised a code to determine what these orchids
were? Does anyone have any further information?


That's why I said this could become a life's work. Its a great story.

To answer your question about how this is done.

If you were to go to any orchid show you'd see orchids for sale, and
mostly they are out of bloom. Yous see just a mass of green plant stuffs.

One out of bloom orchid plant - for the most part - looks like any other
orchid plant of the same variety. The way we tell them apart is by the
tag the vendor puts on the plant. For ease in labelling, vendors will
label their plants by number and have a master list as to what all the
numbers mean. Then when they get to where ever they are going they'll put
a better tag on the plant. So you'll see plants tagged '1167 Soph cernua'
and some just '1167' and you as teh purchaser have to know/ask what '1167'
is. Pretty much this is standard operating procedure, but to a customs
agent or a reporter looking for a story it could look like a "code".

Nevertheless, the key to the crime is that one orchid looks pretty much
like another of the same variety when its out of bloom.

So, your cohort (in the country of origin) writes up a bunch of paperwork
saying you two are importing an easy to get plant like Phragmipedium
schlimii (an example only). He gets CITES & USFWS (endangered species)
permits to import Phrag schlimii. The paperwork says item #123 is Phrag
schlimii. But really item #123 is rare, sexy Phrag kovachii (an example
only), a plant people would kill for. The customs agents look over his
shipment, sees that a bunch of Phrags are coming in, but they really have
no idea WHAT they are because one out of bloom phrag looks pretty much
like another. You pick up the plants at the customs house. Your cohort has
emailed you the real list, stating #123 is kovachii. Bada bing! You're
in the money. You contact your friends who you know will want the plants
no matter what the cost, and you laugh all the way to the bank. Unless
you are George Norris, who - according the the feds - never deleted his
email or cleaned his hard drive and they found the trail. Then you wind
up in prison. Note: George wasn't busted for Phrag. kovachii, Selby
Gardens and Michael Kovach were, I just used those species as an example.

I could go on, but its your homework, LOL!!

If you can figure out the OGD's search feature you should be able to find
Norris's own post about how the feds treated him when they served their
search warrant. I thought it was chilling.

You may also be able to find an account of how Eurpoean vendors filled the
back of a pick up truck with illegally collected Phrag kovachiis to sell
in Europe. I guess their customs agents are even worse than ours at plant
identification _ I'm kidding the story is more convoluted than that, but
there's only so much I can write at one time.

K Barrett