9 Indicted on Charges of Smuggling Rare Cacti Into U.S.

Seven California residents, a Mexican businessman and a retired Arizona doctor have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Tucson on charges of smuggling rare cactus plants into the United States from Mexico.

The case is only the second federal prosecution for the smuggling of endangered plants, according to Don Carr, chief of the Justice Department’s Wildlife and Marine Resources Center in Washington.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents, who posed as collectors and dealers in the investigation, said the nine defendants collected about 270 of the endangered cacti, commonly referred to as “living rocks,” from remote desert canyons between Mexico City and Monterrey, Mexico.

The plants, which sell for between $4 and $500 each, depending on their scarcity and quality, were smuggled from Mexico to be sold to U.S. collectors or exported to Japan, Germany and other countries, Fish and Wildlife Agent George M. Sutton said.

220 Plants Seized

Sutton said undercover agents in March seized 220 of the plants from the Cactus Ranchito in Tarzana, operated by Edward G. Gay, 70, and his wife, Mary Elizabeth, 62; Cactus Data Plants in Littlerock, operated by Wendell S. Minnich, 38, and his wife, Tambra, 24, and the residence of Van Nuys attorney Steven F. Sobel, 31.

Carr described the raid at the time as part of a nationwide attempt to crack down on the smuggling of all types of illegal plants, especially cacti.

The five were not charged with any criminal offenses until two indictments were handed down Wednesday.

Also indicted were Steven C. Southwell, 31, a San Jose schoolteacher; John K. Wakamatsu, 33, a Los Angeles chemist; Dr. Frank F. Ludwig, a retired Tucson physician; and Walter A. Fitz-Maurice, a San Luis Potosi, Mexico, businessman.

The indictments charge the nine defendants with trading in protected species of cacti, conspiracy and smuggling. The plants, referred to in the science world as Aztekium ritteri and Ariocarpus agavoides, are protected by the federal Endangered Species Act and by a 91-nation treaty on wild animals and plants adopted in 1973.

If convicted, the defendants could face up to five years in prison and fines of $250,000 on each of the counts.