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<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: normal;">Rachel Nuwer, Washington Post, May 20, 2021</span><o:p style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></o:p></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;">A recent raid in Italy involving rare Chilean species highlights the growing scale of a black market in the thorny plants.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></o:p></p>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: calibri, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important;">Almost
all of the protected plants had come from Chile, which does not legally export them, and some were well over a century old. The operation — which occurred in February 2020, but is being made public now because of the cactuses’ recent return to Chile — was
most likely the biggest international cactus seizure in</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: nyt-imperial, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important;"><span style="font-family: calibri, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span></span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_p005.pdf" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-size: 20px; font-family: nyt-imperial, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; color: rgb(50, 104, 145); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-family: calibri, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">nearly
three decades.</span></a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: nyt-imperial, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important;"><span style="font-family: calibri, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: calibri, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important;">It
also highlights how much money traffickers may be earning from the trade.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;">Full story: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/20/science/cactus-trafficking-chile.html?smid=em-share&fbclid=IwAR0huJAOL_0Q3dGMdeNvZ0x24QNnsine1UMsNpXgcTqWWsKGp3vCaIJEKfk</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></o:p></p>
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