Foreign nationals attempt to fly to Europe with rare cacti from southern Brazil
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Facebook Linkedin Threads Whatsapp Reddit Email Page link Brazilian authorities detained Czech, German and Russian nationals carrying hundreds of cacti and their seeds, all native to Southern Brazil.The species targeted are critically endangered and highly prized by collectors worldwide.The foreigners caught by police include amateur botanists who are renowned among the international cactus-loving community.Illegal removal from nature harms the preservation of species that can take up to 10 years to become productive.See All Key Ideas Agents from the Brazilian Federal Police found an unusual cargo with four Czech nationals stopped in February at São Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport: 214 cactus specimens and envelopes containing cactus seeds. The material was hidden in beer cans, paper bags and even inside one man’s shoes, according to the pending court case. The plants belonged to seven species, all native to the state of Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil.
In a report signed by cactus expert Rosana Singer, a biologist at Porto Alegre’s Botanical Garden, two of those species are listed as critically endangered: Parodia nothorauschii and Parodia neohorstii. Four others are endangered, including Gymnocalycium horstii and Frailea curvispina. The Czechs — identified in court documents as Jaroslav Vich, Karel Slajs, Vladimir Bradna and Vladimir Sorma — arrived from Montevideo and were about to board a flight to Vienna.
They carried a map of Rio Grande do Sul and a printed itinerary with phrases translated from Czech into Portuguese and Spanish, such as “Do you know where small cacti grow?,” “Are cacti growing here?” and “Sorry. I don’t know if this is private!” The group was detained for one day but is prohibited from leaving Brazil by a court order, which also requested a forensic analysis of their phones. The travelers are now under investigation.
Within a short period, three other foreigners have been caught trying to leave the country with native cacti from Rio Grande do Sul. In March, 20 days after the Guarulhos operation, a German couple was intercepted at Porto Alegre’s Salgado Filho International Airport with seedlings and seeds of the Frailea genus, which is praised by collectors worldwide. Jörg Andreas Hofacker and his wife Ute Bosch were fined by IBAMA a total of 148,000 reais ($29,000) for transporting genetic heritage samples and taking them out of the country without the required authorization. IBAMA said they also had fossils and native mollusk shells in their luggage.
The couple was released after spending a day in Federal Police custody in Porto Alegre and returned to Germany while still facing charges in Brazil. In 2024, a Russian citizen named Alexey Filippov was detained by members of the Environmental Patrol (Patram) and the State Environmental Department (Sema-RS) while collecting cacti at Espinilho State Park in Barra do Quaraí, Rio Grande do Sul. According to Portal Camaquã, he was carrying 98 samples in paper envelopes.
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