The Standing People

"The FBI with the help of the CIA is trying to stop a Chinese family operation out of Beijing and Washington, D.C. that is smuggling rosewood and ebony timber out of Madagascar. The illegal consignments of endangered timber is being shipped to the U.S. from China. The illicit trade of these rare trees has resurfaced in Madagascar, a country already reeling from corrupt military rule. Rosewood is prized for its ruby color and, because the Chinese have helped to make this a poverty-stricken country, is being smuggled out of the island at a rate that, some say, could put the country's survival under threat."