Okay, raise your hand if you knew there was a multi-billion dollar, worldwide black market in timber. No, I didn't either.
This fascinating *Popular Mechanics *article dives deep into the illicit wood trade, which can be as profitable as heroin, and "contributes to the annual destruction of more than 32 million wooded acres — an area nearly the size of New York state."
Pop Mech's website also has ways that technology "can slow timber smuggling," and this surveillance video from an undercover wood bust:
VIDEO NO LONGER AVAILABLE.
