The biggest black market you’ve never heard of is blooming right under your nose. Whether it’s a 4,000-pound cactus shoveled from the Arizona desert or delicate orchids pinched from the tangled jungle of Peru, rare plants are at the center of a rapidly growing and lucrative world of crime. Hosted by plant expert Summer Rayne Oakes, Bad Seeds plunges straight into it, featuring the buyers, the sellers, the obsessives, and those who came face-to-face with the criminals behind an underworld few know exist.
Episode 1: Unscrupulous Collection
In 2020, police in Italy raided an apartment in a small coastal town in the Adriatic. Inside it were one million euros worth of stolen goods. But Italian police didn’t find firearms, drugs, or other contraband; they found succulents. Specifically, 1,000 specimens of Copiapoa cacti, all stolen from the Atacama desert in Chile.
This is just one of many stories like this. There’s a growing black market that deals in stolen plants. Since the pandemic, theft of plants has become more rampant and more lucrative. Not only is it causing more crime, but this “unscrupulous collection” of plants is one of the leading causes of extinction among plants. And the loss of biodiversity takes its toll on all of us. Join plant expert and author Summer Rayne Oakes as she plunges into the world of plant poaching.
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