The dangerous world of international orchid smuggling!

Spring man pleads guilty to smuggling orchids

(HOUSTON - The Chronicle) A Spring man has pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle prized tropical lady slipper orchids into the United States.

George W. Norris also pleaded guilty Friday in a Miami courtroom to six other charges relating to smuggling orchids into the United States, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Monday.

The retired salesman faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for each of the seven counts. For each count, he could also be fined twice the amount he gained from his conduct, twice the amount he caused others to lose, or $250,000 -- whichever is greater. (--ouch!! -rH)

No attorney information was immediately available for Norris.

Norris, who runs Spring Orchid Specialities out of a greenhouse behind his house, could not be reached for comment Monday. A woman who answered the phone at his Spring residence Monday night said he had gone to bed.

His co-defendant, Manuel Arias Silva, a prominent Peruvian orchid grower, previously pleaded guilty to two counts and is waiting to be sentenced.

According to the indictment, Silva sold several shipments of protected orchids to Norris between January 1999 and October 2003. The orchids were pulled from the wild and shipped alongside more common, nursery-raised flowers legally imported.

The lady slipper is one of the Phragmipedium species of orchids. Several "phrags," as they are known in collecting circles, are considered seriously endangered in the wild and are protected under international treaties. Nursery-raised varieties can be exported with government permits.

Arias shipped endangered orchids through Miami to Spring, where Norris resold them to high-end hobbyists at black-market prices.