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By Al Barrus</div>
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Fish and Wildlife News, Spring 2020</div>
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<span></span><span>When someone mentions smuggling and the Southwest, cacti </span>probably don’t pop to mind. However, the black market cactus trade is a problem, and the Service and partners are on it. After years of investigation, four cactus traffickers
were sentenced last fall for their role in the illegal harvest, sale and/or transportation of living rock, a spineless cactus found only in the Big Bend region <span>of southwestern Texas and northeastern Mexico.</span>
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<div>The defendants were sentenced to a total of nine years of probation and one year of unsupervised probation. They also were ordered to pay $118,804 in fines and restitution, and forfeit 17 firearms. There are more defendants in the ongoing case.<br>
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<span>Service special agents, Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Department of Justice Environmental Crimes Unit, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the National Park Service, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Sul Ross State University are collaborating
on the years-long effort to stop the illegal harvest of living rock cactus.</span><br>
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Read the full story (p. 36): <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important"><a href="https://www.fws.gov/home/fwn/pdf/News-Spring%202020-web.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery" id="LPlnk741463">https://www.fws.gov/home/fwn/pdf/News-Spring%202020-web.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery</a></span></div>
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(Note - there is a slight typo in the Table of Contents that is being addressed by the Editor.)</div>
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<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">You may subscribe to receive the "</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Fish & Wildlife
News" </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">newsletter at: </span><a href="https://www.fws.gov/home/fwn/" id="LPNoLP964721" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">https://www.fws.gov/home/fwn/</a><br>
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