Story and photographs by Richard Labossiere

     Having been a wildlife enforcement officer for over 20 years, I have seen just about everything when it comes to the illegal take, possession and smuggling of wildlife. I must say that this particular two-year investigation into the smuggling of rare and endangered Asian Tropical Lady Slipper Orchids was by far the most interesting and demanding. 

    It all started on March 2, 2000 at the Winnipeg International Airport in Manitoba, Canada. I received a call from a Canada Customs Inspector that a very large shipment of orchids had just arrived at air cargo. The customs inspector indicated that the importer of record was a local orchid nursery by the name of Ever Spring Orchid Nursery and that the country of export on record was Taiwan. Having already finished my morning cup of coffee, I decided to head over to the airport and take a closer look at these intriguing plants. During the short drive to the airport it dawned on me that I knew very little about orchids and knew even less with respect to the identification of these plants. I needed to find someone who could assist me in the identification of the orchids and could do so on plants without blooms. There were over 2,000 of these little plants in the shipment. 

    I managed to find someone from the Manitoba Orchid Society in Winnipeg to assist me in the identification of the orchids. During my telephone conversation with the orchid expert, I was informed that we would likely find some Appendix I Lady Slipper (Paphiopedilum species) orchids in the shipment. I knew the Paph species were Appendix I under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) but how on God’s green earth did this fellow know there would likely be some of these highly endangered orchids in this shipment? I may be slow but the light bulb finally came on that this company must have previously imported some of these highly prized and very rare orchids into Winnipeg. That was why the orchid enthusiast had an inkling that something interesting might be waiting for us at air cargo.

    Yes, that’s what I thought. I did not let on at the time that I was somewhat naïve about orchid identification and went on my merry way setting these 30 some suspect orchids aside for further analysis. My orchid expert explained why he felt the orchids in question were Paph species and then decided that the Customs Inspector and I knew enough to continue the inspection by ourselves. Truth be known, our orchid expert suspected that the importer would likely be coming around shortly to pick up his plants and he really did not want to be around when the manager of the business arrived. I found out very quickly that orchid enthusiasts all seem to know each other and that the orchid moccasin telegraph is functioning just fine. 

    We discovered 211 Paph orchids in the shipment and, when we compared the Taiwanese CITES export permits to the shipment, we noted that the shipper had not included any of them on the permits. However, there were 211 Cypripedium formosanum orchids listed on the accompanying CITES paperwork. Since the Cypripedium is an Appendix II orchid under CITES, only a Taiwanese export permit would be required to import these particular orchids into Canada. It became apparent to us that somebody was trying to pull the wool over our eyes in an attempt to bring into Canada these endangered lady slipper orchids. Before too long, the manager of the orchid nursery in question was at air cargo hoping to pick up his prized plants. 

    I thought this would be an open and shut case. NOT! Because all 211 Paph orchids were void of flowers, there was absolutely no way of proving that these plants were CITES Appendix I listed species. After having consulted with numerous experts on orchid identification, I quickly found out that the only way I could prove that these orchids were pure species was to wait for them to flower, which I was also told could take up to two years to occur. DNA analysis was not an option because none of the forensic labs anywhere in the world (I know because I think I called every single one of them) had orchid DNA capabilities. The waiting game was on. Fortunately, it took only three months for the first of the seized Paphs to bloom. A second Paph bloomed in October of 2000. The first bloom was identified as a Paphiopedilum conco-bellatulum. I learned that this is a natural hybrid from the wilds of China. This identification also led me to believe that these Paph’s may have been wild collected rather than grown from seed in a greenhouse. The second plant that bloomed was a Paphiopedilum armeniacum – a pure species and definitely Appendix I under CITES. Unfortunately, during a weekend evening when the greenhouses were closed, an orchid enthusiast decided he or she should collect this very beautiful Paph armeniacum. The following day I went to the Winnipeg Police Department to report that someone had stolen my flower. After the police officers had finished chuckling they started an investigation file on the orchid theft. After word got out in the orchid underworld that Winnipeg’s finest were looking for an orchid thief, the flower mysteriously returned to the conservatory, less the flower. The flower had been cut off from the plant and only the pot and plant (complete with seizure tag) remained. I decided that further security measures were needed to ensure that future orchid thefts would not occur. I quickly purchased two very large wire dog kennels and all seized Paphs were placed in the two locked kennels. This was another first for me having to put orchids under lock and key so that they did not walk away. 

    During the winter of 2000/2001 numerous Paphs managed to bloom and all were sent by air to Ottawa for hands on expert identification. Before long, the Ottawa expert who identified the plants had positively identified 29 of the seized orchids as Paphiopedilum conco-bellatulum, Paphiopedilum armeniacum, Paphiope- dilum micranthum, Paphiopedilum bellatulum and Paphiopedilum malipoense – all listed as CITES Appendix I.