<http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1572&dept_id=183020&newsid=10509532&
P> 

Three days before Halloween, George Norris, 24407 Pine Canyon Drive,
Spring, got a visit from a U.S. agency that proved scarier than any spook
or goblin.
He is still recovering from the encounter.
Norris, 65, and his wife, Kathy, own Spring Orchid Specialties.


Three days before Halloween, George Norris, 24407 Pine Canyon Drive,
Spring, got a visit from a U.S. agency that proved scarier than any spook
or goblin.
He is still recovering from the encounter.
Norris, 65, and his wife, Kathy, own Spring Orchid Specialties.
"I import orchids from all around the world and have been doing it more
than 25 years," he said.
A small greenhouse is located in the back of their home.
The income supplements his Social Security check.
He suffers from diabetes, arthritis and heart problems and is unable to
work, he said.
At 10 a.m. Oct. 28, he said, three pick-up trucks pulled into his driveway

and six people, five men and one woman, got out. 
All of the men were wearing body armor and carrying sidearms.
Four of them came to the front door and two went to the back. 
When he answered the front door, one of the men identified himself as a
special agent with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), a
branch of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
"They serve me with a search warrant, they sit me in a chair in my kitchen,
tell me not to move out of the chair. They read me my Miranda Rights, then
tell me I'm not under arrest, but I can't leave that chair," Norris said.
"They wouldn't even permit me to get my glasses to read documents they were
showing me. They had to send somebody to get my glasses for me."
The agents had a search warrant issued by U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Milloy
in Houston, empowering them to search for a certain type of orchid imported
from Peru without required United States import permits. 

According to FWS, Norris represented the plants as lawfully imported and
sold them via electronic mail. The importation and selling of the orchids
is a violation of the Lacey Act and is a felony. 
The agents proceeded to rummage the entire house and greenhouse for nearly
four hours, he said. 
"They went through our dresser drawers, they went through my wife's
underwear drawer; they went through my sock drawer; they went through our
closets; they went through all the rooms in the house.
"They tore up everything, particularly my office. They took 20-something
boxes of documents; they took my computer; they took my customer list; they
took invoices; they took everything. They even took floppy disks that had
fishing pictures on them."
Norris said he tried in vain to explain to the agents he was in compliance
with U.S. and international laws allowing the sale of the type of orchid
for which they were searching, phragmipedium, which grows in Peru.
. . .


Norris said he believes his troubles may stem from FSW's use of CARNIVORE,
a government system that can tap into computer e-mails.
"They showed me page 3 of a 5-page e-mail from several years ago where I
was being offered smuggled plants. They did not show me pages 4 and 5 which
were my answer to this fellow telling him we would not buy any such plants
that were undocumented. This was so old that I don't even remember this
e-mail," he said. 
. . .

Norris has not been arrested or charged.
Norris said he will ask Judge Milloy to rescind the search warrant order
and to instruct the FSW to return all the material they confiscated. 
"For now, I am out of business and prevented from conducting my business,"
he said. I am getting checks coming in for payments of bills, but I do not
have any of those records to make the payments to."


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