Science|Global Cactus Traffickers Are Cleaning Out the Deserts https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/20/science/cactus-trafficking-chile.html Copiapoa cinerascens, a cactus, in Pan de Azúcar National Park in the Atacama Desert of Chile.Credit... Gretchen Mattison/Alamy Sections Global Cactus Traffickers Are Cleaning Out the Deserts A recent raid in Italy involving rare Chilean species highlights the growing scale of a black market in the thorny plants. Copiapoa cinerascens, a cactus, in Pan de Azúcar National Park in the Atacama Desert of Chile.Credit... Gretchen Mattison/Alamy May 20, 2021, 12:30 p.m. ET Andrea Cattabriga has seen a lot of cactuses where they didn’t belong. But he’d never seen anything like Operation Atacama, a bust carried out last year in Italy. A cactus expert and president of the Association for Biodiversity and Conservation, Mr. Cattabriga often helps the police identify the odd specimen seized from tourists or intercepted in the post.