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Illicit Trade, Ep. 05 - Alerce

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A container filled with reddish wood was found in the port of San Francisco, California. Just by chance, a worker recognized the type of lumber: Alerce, one of the most precious protected species on the planet. This wood could only come from one place: the south of Chile, where illegal logging has brought this millenary native tree to the verge of extinction.

Series Description

There are no millenary mummies in Switzerland, the vicuñas do not live in New Zealand, and the Alerce does not grow in the United States. How did Chile’s most valuable cultural goods get there? Illicit Trade investigates the incredible theft of fossils, mummies, shipwrecks, meteorites, exotic animals, and endangered trees that have crossed continents to end up in the hands of wealthy collectors, scientific laboratories, and prestigious museums.

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