Supervisors at the Agriculture Ministry central unit for enforcement and investigation have exposed an attempt to smuggle stingrays through the Avnei Hefez checkpoint near Tulkarem.
The stingrays were hidden in a vehicle transporting about 100 kilograms of bream for sale. After finding that the driver did not have a permit for the bream, inspectors stopped the vehicle and a search revealed the hidden cache of stingrays.
Doctors inspected the cargo and ordered that it all be destroyed. At the same time, the driver has been taken for questioning by the Nature and Parks Authority for catching protected fish.
Roi Kliger, the director of the central unit for enforcement, says that "From one seizure to the next, we are discovering new methods and incidents that we hadn't thought of."
Kliger added, "In addition the unit's supervisors are working around the clock, checking everything that strikes them as suspicious, in order to protect the public's health, to strengthen the enforcement, and to ensure that all the sources of food are kept under supervision."