El Paso, Texas – The sixth and final man was sentenced in federal court Monday, for unlawfully trafficking internationally protected living rock cacti to sell to buyers in Europe and Asia, in violation of the Lacey Act.
On October 19, 2020, in U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas, Pecos Division, Harry George Bock, II, 47, of El Paso, Texas, was sentenced for felony charges Monday, to three years probation, $5,500 in fines, $7,200 in restitution (to be split by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Homeland Security Investigations), forfeiture of 41 cacti, and a $100 special assessment.
This sentencing brings closure to an investigation that began in 2012, which has resulted in the charge, conviction, and sentence of six traffickers. With five receiving felony charges and one misdemeanor, they’ve been sentenced to pay over $140,000 in restitution and fines, and to forfeit numerous firearms.
The investigation began in 2012, when federal law enforcement uncovered evidence of a substantial cactus trafficking organization, sending the plants overseas from the Big Bend region of southwest Texas. The six defendants knowingly facilitated the purchase and transport of thousands of living rock cacti (Ariocarpus fissuratus), which are afforded protection through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and listed as Appendix I protected plant species that prohibit foreign commerce in order to sell them for profit. It’s unknown exactly how many were smuggled, but around 4,000 individual plants were seized by the authorities. A Sul Ross State University botanist found local land owners to adopt the cacti.
The defendants falsified customs declarations misidentifying plants when shipping internationally. The defendants violated the Lacey Act, a federal law which makes it a felony to engage in the sale or purchase of protected wildlife with a market value in excess of $350 knowing that the wildlife was taken, possessed, transported or sold in violation of laws or regulations of any state, or of CITES protections. While this species of cactus tends to be plentiful where it occurs, its range is extremely limited, and takes decades for an individual to reach maturity.
Learn more about living rock cactus and the investigative work of the special agents involved in the case: Web: https://www.fws.gov/southwest/stories/2019/Rockcactus.html Game Warden International: https://igwmagazine.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/IGW-spring-2020-cactus-WEB.pdf Medium: https://medium.com/@USFWS/catching-cactus-crooks-d7ecf7a6d358
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For information on how to become a Special Agent with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, please visit https://www.fws.gov/le/careers.html
