I did by no means want to question the integrity of those who have
identified, counted etc. the confiscated materials.
And honestly, if you did your job right (and I do not doubt that) I
do not see any reason for you to get upset about my question.
By 'hoaxes' I
refer to the many cases that occured here in Europe, in that plants
were confiscated and a big fuss was made about them. After that only
few of them came to court (for various reasons) and those that came
to court usually ended up like a balloon being pricked.
This usually at very high costs to the taxpayers. In one case the
prosecution spend several hundres of thousands of good DMs (among
otheres to employ two 'experts' who at the end were 'thrown' out of
court.) At the beginning the prosecution and German Cites authorties
screamed that the were going to have the 'culprit' thrown in jail for
several years and that there would be a fine nearing 1,000,000 DM.
At the end, the grower charged ended up with volontarely paying
15,000 DM, as the
prosecution had to drop nearly all charges. The plants, several
truckloads, were transported to various botanic gardens in Germany
where most of them either disappeared in a miraculous way or were
cultivated to death. And equally miraculously, some ended up in the
trade at the locations where the two prosecution 'experts' were situated.
Happy CPing
Dr. Guido J. Braem ---- Plant Taxonomist
Naunheimer Str. 17
D-35633 Lahnau
Germany
Tel. [+49](6441]65333
Fax [+49](6441)65334