There’s a new breed of criminal in town, a group of delinquents whose crimes surpass even that of the most hardened of criminals. The abhorrent nature of their activities is so unprecedented that there is only one label that could be used to describe them, Supervillians.

So what crime did these hooligans commit? What felony must these sinners repent for? I am of course talking about the selling of illegal cacti.

Yes, that’s right, if you sell the wrong cactus in Australia, you could be fined up to $220,000 AUD. Better keep your garden away from the Weeds Police (this is what they’re actually called!).

_{This really makes it look like the Kangaroo’s will be the ones to enforce this law.}

Ok, so in all fairness the Australian government does have a good reason to go after these cacti criminals (cactriminals?). Biodiversity is a big important thing in Australia, and these are essentially big ol’ weeds that could devastate our ecosystem if they’re allowed to spread.

That being said, parts of this campaign are still hilarious. This is a joint campaign with NSW CrimeStoppers, the Local Land Services and the NSW Department of Primary Industries, dedicated entirely to stopping houseplant owners from buying the forbidden cacti. Literally multiple government agencies are now dedicated to fighting the good fight against the insidious cacti black market (or I guess, the green market).

And on top of this, the news article about this campaign actually says “buyer beware”. Like I think that a campaign that is trying to get houseplant buyers to go onto the NSW weed page and plug in the scientific name of the plant to see if the transaction is lawful is just inherently funny.

But uh, I think their campaign may have backfired, because I definitely want to own an illegal cacti now.