(ANSA) - RIMINI, NOVEMBER 18 - Illegally imported and sold rare and endangered plants, in particular cactus from the Chilean and American deserts, the collector denounced as trafficker by the Carabinieri Forestali of the CarabinieriCites Nucleus of Ancona.
With the support of the Forestry Carabinieri of the Morciano di Romagna station in the Rimini area, the Cites military seized 171 cacti belonging to endangered species uprooted from the Chilean, Mexican and American deserts and illegally detained in the greenhouse by the Rimini collector-trafficker.
The kidnapped was ordered by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Ancona, as part of the "Atacama" operation, aimed at combating the illicit trafficking of cactustutelati by the CITES (Washington Convention on the protection of endangered animal and plant species) and considered at very high risk of extinction.
Already last February, at the beginning of the investigative activities, another 930 plants had been seized against a Marchigiano, residing in Senigallia, illegally uprooted during 7 trips to Chile and Argentina, and illegally imported - to circumvent the controls - through the sending "postal packages" to the European Union.
According to the Forestale, the two suspects, the Rimini and the Marche, had business links with about twenty client and retailers, 10 foreign collectors and 9 Italians, for a turnover of at least one million euros.
Many plants, belonging to very rare varieties, collected in the Atacama desert in Chile (from which the operation takes its name), were exported through resident resellers in Asian countries, including Japan;
others were sold or bought in Europe to be re-released on the illegal market.
The protected cactus tour dates back to the 2029 arrestonel of an American citizen to trade certain species of Arizona.
All the plants seized during the "Atacama" operation were entrusted to the Botanical Garden of the University of Milan.
(HANDLE).