'Crime against nature': the rise and fall of the world's most notorious succulent thief
Byungsu Kim pleaded guilty to attempting to ferry more than 3,700 wild dudleya plants from California parks to South Korea
Lois Beckett in Los Angeles
Sun 20 Mar 2022 08.27 EDT
When Byungsu Kim appeared for his sentencing hearing on Zoom from the Santa Ana jail in California, his jaw was wired shut.
The 46-year-old South Korean national had been in prison for more than two years on two different continents. According to the US government, he was an “international succulent trafficker”, perhaps the most notorious houseplant poacher in the world.
Kim had already pleaded guilty to taking more than 3,700 wild dudleya plants from California state parks and attempting to export them to South Korea.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/20/california-succulent-smuggling-dudleya
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One way to prevent the poaching of rare plants is simply to cultivate as many of the coveted plants as possible, thus reducing the market value of stolen plants. But environmental activists also continue to endorse tough criminal punishments. In 2021, the California Native Plant Society helped pass a state law specifically criminalizing dudleya poaching, with fines of up to $500,000 and six months in prison.
“It’s very sad if people are compelled to come to California, or anywhere, and remove a wild organism from its natural habitat, and they end up in jail,” Jensen said. “It’s just a sad story all the way around that I’m concerned, for the plant and the people.”