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Banned
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Originally Posted by The_Jazz
We've only got his word that this email was the only reason for the warrant. And that he responded as described. And that he never smuggled orchids.
I don't know this guy. He may be trustworthy. Then again, he may be someone that I wouldn't trust. You'll have to excuse me if I reserve judgement based on an article written entirely from the standpoint of someone suspected of smuggling.
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dksuddeth...pick a different "victim" to make your argument. This one is a guilty pleading, lying, greedy, criminal, IMO. His "home invasion" was apparently in Oct., 2003, and seems to have been justified, if for no other reason, than, it was a smuggling case, large profits were involved, it involved five years of illegal activity, and it would have been easy for the suspects to destroy evidence, without a FWS agent "show of force", which enabled the agents to "lock down" the investigation scene and the suspects, George and Kathy Norris. I don't think that the agents handling of the Oct. 28, 2003 "visit" to the Norris home, could have been any more embarrasing to Norris, than the news below the first link, reporting his crimes, pleas, and prison sentence.
Quote:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...346EDT0928.DTL
Flower dealer sentenced to 17 months for smuggling rare orchids
Wednesday, October 6, 2004
(10-06) 20:46 PDT MIAMI (AP) --
An orchid dealer was sentenced Wednesday to a year and five months in federal prison for scheming to smuggle prized tropical lady slipper orchids into the United States.
George W. Norris of Spring, Texas, was also sentenced to two years probation. Co-defendant Manuel Arias Silva, a Peruvian orchid grower, pleaded guilty in June and was sentenced in July to a year and nine months in prison.
Norris instructed Arias to ship through south Florida because federal inspectors at Miami International Airport were more lax than their counterparts in Houston, according to papers and e-mails seized in the investigation.
The investigation was based on a tip about Norris offering endangered species for sale on the Internet.
The Peruvian lady slippers are considered seriously endangered in the wild and are protected by international treaty. Nursery-raised varieties can be exported with government permits.
Norris and Arias used invalid permits for the shipments and falsely labeled many of the plants to cover up the lack of a valid permit, prosecutors said.
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:...s&ct=clnk&cd=2
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 18, 2004
Carlos B. Castillo, Special Counsel for Public Affairs, (305) 961-9425
Yovanny Lopez, Public Affairs Specialist,
(305) 961-9316
TEXAS ORCHID GROWER PLEAS GUILTY IN MIAMI TO SMUGGLING PROTECTED PERUVIAN ORCHIDS
Marcos Daniel Jiménez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, announced today that George Norris, 66, a resident of Spring, Texas, pled guilty in Miami federal District Court in connection with a conspiracy to smuggle into the United States protected orchid specimens, including specimens of the genus Phragmipedium, commonly known as Tropical lady's slipper orchids. All species of orchid are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a treaty to which the United States and Peru, along with over 160 other nations, are parties. The United States implements CITES through the Endangered Species Act. In addition to pleading guilty to the conspiracy charge, Norris pled guilty to six additional criminal charges related to the smuggling of orchid specimens into the United States for sale and admitted to a forfeiture provision in the Indictment which asserts that the orchids or their substitute value is properly forfeitable as part of the action..
Under federal sentencing guidelines, Norris may receive up to a five-year term of imprisonment and a possible fine of up to the greater of $250,000 or twice the gain or loss from his relevant conduct, for each of the seven Counts. United States District Judge Patricia Seitz accepted the guilty pleas and scheduled sentencing for September 2, 2004, at 8:30 a.m. Norris' co-defendant, Manuel Arias Silva of Lima, Peru, previously entered guilty pleas to two counts of the Indictment and is awaiting sentencing on the charges.
According to the indictment and statements in Court, Arias made several shipments of orchids to his co-conspirator, George Norris, of Spring, Texas, between January of 1999 and October of 2003. Arias would obtain a CITES permit for the shipment from Peruvian authorities, with whom he had a long-standing relationship, authorizing the export of certain numbers of artificially-propagated specimens of particular species of orchids. Arias would then include in the shipment specimens of species not included on the CITES permit. Norris and Arias admitted by their pleas that to conceal their illegal activity, they would falsely label the protected species as a species included on the permit. Arias would provide Norris a code or "key" that would provide a means for deciphering the false labels and identifying the true species of the orchids. One shipment in February of 2003 allegedly included some 1,145 specimens, of which approximately 490 were of species not authorized for export by the accompanying CITES permit. Norris and Arias admitted by pleading guilty that they used invalid permits for their shipments and falsely labeled many of the plants shipped to cover up the lack of a valid permit. Three of the shipments mentioned in Court were valued at more than $45,000, based on the actual sales recorded in records seized during the search of Norris' business in Texas.
http://www.fws.gov/southeast/news/2004/r04-021.html
Two Individuals Indicted in Miami for Smuggling Protected Peruvian Orchids
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 11, 2004
Contact:
Tom MacKenzie, FWS, 404-679-7291
WASHINGTON, D.C. - A federal grand jury in Miami, Florida, has returned an indictment charging Manuel G. Arias Silva, a Peruvian national, and George W. Norris, a resident of Spring, Texas, with conspiring to smuggle into the United States protected orchid specimens, including specimens of the genus Phragmipedium, commonly known as Tropical lady’s slipper orchids. All species of orchid are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
According to the indictment, Arias sold several shipments of orchids to Norris between January of 1999 and October of 2003. Arias would allegedly obtain a CITES permit for the shipment from Peruvian authorities that authorized the export of certain numbers of artificially-propagated specimens of particular species of orchids. Arias, at the instruction of Norris, would then allegedly include in the shipment specimens of species not included on the CITES permit. To conceal the allegedly illegal activity, he would falsely label the protected species as a species listed on the permit. Arias would allegedly provide to Norris a code or “key” that would provide Norris a means for deciphering the false labels and identifying the true species of the orchids. In some instances Arias allegedly shipped orchids that were wild collected rather than artificially propagated. One shipment in February of 2003 allegedly included some 1,145 specimens, of which approximately 490 were of species not authorized for export by the accompanying CITES permit.
In addition, Arias is charged with two counts and Norris with one count of making a false statement to federal authorities in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a). Norris faces an additional two counts of smuggling related to alleged sales and domestic shipments of orchids that he knew had been imported contrary to law. If convicted, the maximum penalty for each of the counts of the indictment is up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora is a treaty to which the United States and Peru, along with over 160 other nations, are parties. The United States implements CITES through the Endangered Species Act. Certain species of orchids are listed on Appendix I of CITES, including all species of the genus Phragmipedium.
The indictment alleges that the men used invalid permits for the shipments and falsely labeled many of the plants shipped to cover up the lack of a valid permit. The shipments all were allegedly for commercial purposes.
The investigation of this case was lead by Special Agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with assistance from the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection Service and the Department of Agriculture. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida as well as the Wildlife and Marine Resources Section of the Department of Justice.
An indictment is a formal accusation and is not proof of guilt. Defendants are presumed innocent until and unless they are found guilty.
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:...s&ct=clnk&cd=2
Orchid importer arrested in smuggling
Posted on Saturday March 06, 2004
By Larry Lebowitz
....Records show the investigation started in April 2002 when an unidentified private citizen contacted Fish & Wildlife investigators about the husband-and-wife team who were selling endangered species via the Internet.
The agents encouraged the citizen to maintain an e-mail correspondence and make several purchases from the Norrises. The cooperator purchased four orchids in May 2002.
NO PERMIT
At the agent's urging, the buyer repeatedly asked George Norris to include a copy of the endangered species import permit from Peru with the shipment. Each time Norris promised, but failed to deliver copies of the permits.
Agents later discovered that Peru issued Arias a permit to export some orchids in May 2002, but it was canceled by USDA officials. And the Peruvian permit did not include any of the species shipped to the cooperating buyer or advertised by Norris on the e-mail shopping list.
The buyer ordered 10 more species from Norris in August. Norris promised his e-mail shoppers that Arias had a special Peruvian permit ``so they are perfectly legal.''
<h3>The feds raided the Norris home in October and unearthed years of letters and e-mail correspondence with Arias that allegedly show the conspiracy dates back to at least 1995.
LAX INSPECTIONS
One letter, dated July 1998, from Norris to Arias, boldly laid out the lax inspections in Miami.</h3>
"This shipment was great. It went through inspection in 1 ½ hours. They did not open very many bags. They know that you can have really clean plants and just do not look. But this is only Miami . . . Houston would be much tougher. Please make a note to not ship except to Miami. I do not think there will be any problem with the phrags. As they have passed so many through as other genus.''
Norris encouraged Arias to keep the phrags coming.
"I don't see any problems with shipping phrags, as Miami is so overloaded with plant shipments that they rarely open boxes and do not look at many plants. Make sure they are wrapped with moss and paper and in plastic and marked Maxillarias as before.''
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Last edited by host; 04-11-2006 at 10:39 PM..
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