A woman was caught trying to smuggle nearly 1,000 cacti into New Zealand, wrapping them in stockings and tying them to her body when she arrived from China, the New Zealand Herald reported.
The sniffer dogs detected the stinging plants in Wenqing Li, 38, a resident of Auckland, known as Wendy, who was arrested when he tried to escape from his warehouse in a toilet at Auckland International Airport on March 24, 2019, according to the press.
947 cacti and succulents – which included eight endangered and threatened species – were worth more than $ 10,000.
He pleaded guilty to charges related to two separate incidents at the airport. She was sentenced on Wednesday in the Manukau District Court to 12 months of intensive supervision and 100 hours of community work.
He had planned to sell the plants on the TradeMe online marketplace.
In a separate case, on July 23, 2019, she was found in possession of 142 unauthorized seeds that were hidden in two iPad cases for luggage.
More than 200 pots of plants, including a snail, were also discovered.
“This conviction serves as a good reminder that anyone smuggling endangered plants or other species into New Zealand can expect to be prosecuted,” said Simon Anderson, a biosafety official in the Ministry of Primary Industries. .
“It is important to remember that bringing unauthorized plants into the country by any method, whether smuggling across the border or receiving products by post, endangers New Zealand’s biosecurity,” he said.