http://www.theguardian.com/news/2014/oct/28/-sp-plant-crime-of-the-century
Seriously, though, sometimes people just care way too much about having some rare variety or plant, and others do all kinds of shady things in order to gain. All of this in a context where people are trying to save varieties or species, or prevent the spread of noxious diseases. When it comes to the fevered imagination of collecting Old World figs, nothing is too precious than the object of your desires...even though realistically, most of the truly excellent figs are pretty well distributed. There's nothing to hold the value of any of these guys once the mania is gone, and the risks you take to get them, and perhaps the expense, may well not ever had been worth it.
When compared the enthusiastic home breeding programs for cherimoyas, mangos, where guys like Zill are pretty much doing some rather successful breeding and creating perhaps viable commercial varieties, never mind how great they are for the dooryard--getting a rare Mallorcan fig seems to pale. If importing plant materials with abandon is your game, isn't stuff like getting seeds of Durio macrantha (ultra rare, but important breeding stock for cold hardiness of delicacy) so much worth the possibility of disease or upset government agents?
Someone who breeds a persistent caprifig with (VdB, VdS, or Pastilliere) as parent will have something much more valuable than any exciting variety he or she can import!