The journal Nature Plants recently studied the level of danger to almost every species on earth––the largest study of any plant taxon––and the alarming result was 31 percent are threatened, the fifth most of any taxonomic group, just behind amphibians and corals. There are 1,480 living species of cacti, all but one indigenous to the Americas. Safronov, Drab, and the others rented a white Chevrolet Tahoe, then drove west. They were hobbyists, they said, come to see American cacti. How long did they plan to stay in the country? Three weeks, the tourists answered. Safronov’s swollen hand reaches for something in the rocks.Īt the airport, customs agents pulled aside two of the tourists for a routine interview. A low voice from behind the camera speaks. In the dry riverbed the tourists’ eyes search the jagged slopes, and like excited children on an Easter egg hunt they motion and point. One man wears a floppy safari hat and a tan vest with the words “RUSSIA” on the back. They are middle-aged and gray-haired, mostly men, some with bloated bellies and ponytails. In a video posted to YouTube four years ago a group walks a desert wash beside a scraggy cliff. “If anyone among you is interested to join,” Drab wrote, “you must do so as soon as possible.” The investigator alerted Fish & Wildlife Service in El Paso, Texas, and from there the Bureau of Land Management, Customs and Border Protection, even the crisp-brimmed rangers of the National Park Service. since last June.” The post was written by the trip’s organizer and the site’s host, Igor Drab, who had planned a camping tour of state and national parks across the American Southwest, starting and ending in Los Angeles. Written in Slovak, the blog post read: “Already this summer, I began to have ‘cold turkey’––I have not been in the U.S.
The investigation began when an agent in Denver found a European website advertising a trip. Safronov and the others left their seats, then applied for entry into the U.S. The flight from Moscow had lasted 12 hours. For at least six months investigators in federal agencies that watch the nation’s wild lands, its fauna and flora, had also kept eyes on these five foreigners, who would soon drive into the desert, where undercover agents would be waiting. It was a holiday, so the banks and much of government had closed, but not all of it. They were Czechs, Slovaks, and Russians, here on vacation. Yevgeny Safronov and the four tourists landed in Los Angeles on a 70-degree dream of a day last May.
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