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.